DSLR Lens Buying Guide - Part 2

DSLR Lens Buying Guide Part 2 is the next clues before you buy dslr lenses. Unlike if you have a pocket or a prosumer camera, where the lens can not be changed, the owner of DSLR camera lens requires precision in choosing to be purchased, as each type of lenses designed specifically for a particular shoot. But DSLR camera manufacturers anticipate the needs scene by attaching the kit lens that is a lens vario, which is designed to meet the initial needs of the buyer or user to a certain extent because the lens kit is economical to reduce the price of DSLR camera package offered to the market.

After a lot of shooting with the default kit lens camera the photographer will definitely feel the lack of such a kit lens, so that he would decide to buy a new and better lenses. The question is "what kind of lens you should buy?" For photographing macro would be better results if you use a macro lens, photographing landscape will be better results if you use a wide-angle with fixed-aperture. Similarly, macro photograph will not be good results if you use a wide angle lens.

To be emphasized here is no need to buy all types of lenses. Select the lens that best suits your photography needs the most preferred and most frequently performed.

To be able to decide what type of lens to buy, do some research as follows:

1. Take photos with the kit lens as often as possible with good planning.
2. Periodically, inventorying your photo collection and create a classification that found photography categories most frequently performed.
3. Detailed diagnostic photographs of most categories and determine the necessary repairs of the lens, for example:

• less sharp focus
• less blur bokeh
• less precise tonal
• less rapid response, etc..

Job demands

An understanding of this photo category, allowing us to determine the criteria of the lens that we need, for example:

• Paparazzi and sports journalists often take photos from a distance and speed of response necessary in order not to miss the moment, so need a telephoto lens with a focal distance (over 200 mm) equipped with an image stabilizer and ultrasonic motors.

• Photo studio with lighting products in a limited, need a lens with a shorter focal length (between 18 and 50 mm), can shoot from close range (macro) and wide aperture.

• Photo stage / show requires a lens capable of shooting in low-light conditions (wide aperture / fast lens), fast response (ultrasonic motor or the like), and long focus (200 mm or more).

• For photojournalism, travel, human interest, what is needed is flexibility and foresight to capture the moment. Vario lens with wide range and light weight is the best suited to meet these needs, e.g. 18-135 mm or 18-200 mm.

After knowing the criteria lenses we need, then we can look for a lens that suits needs and budget.

How To Avoid Blurred Photos

How to avoid blur in photos - After my post Tips for Sharp Picture and Some Causes of Blur Photos in previous posts, the following is my post how to avoid a blurred picture. These posts are very related.

There are two main factors causing blurry photo:

1. The shutter speed setting is too slow compared to the focal length

Generally to avoid blurred photos due to hand shake you should use the Shutter Speed reference:

Shutter speed = 1 / focal length

For example, if you use lens with 100mm focal length, your camera shutter speed should be set at 1/100 second or faster.
This reference available to DSLR with full frame sensor. If your camera has cropped sensor (APSC), such as cropped Canon camera uses factor 1.6x, Nikon Sony, and Pentax use factor 1.5x, Olympus and Panasonic use factor 2x.
So if you have Canon DSLR camera with cropped sensor and use 100mm lens, the save minimum shutter speed from blurred due to hand shake is 1/160 second.
The question is "Why longer focal length need faster shutter speed?" Because the longer focal length, the more sensitive sensor to capture the vibe.

2. The object you are photographing moved too fast

So that the shutter speed must also follow the rapid motion of the subject of the photo. For example, to freeze the motion of the person running a basketball player, you need a minimum of 1/500. For dancers and singers, usually 1/200 enough, and to photograph people who do not move 1/60 is usually pretty good.

How to prevent blur

There is technology in cameras and lenses designed to prevent blur. This type of technology is divided into two categories. The first one is in the camera, in the lens the other. The name varies, among other Image Stabilization (IS), Vibration Reduction (VR), Steady Shot (SS), Shake Reduction (SR) Mega OIS, Optical Stabilization (OS) and Vibration Compensation (VC). This technology can help you but can not help in total. For example, once you have to use a 1/200, but with the help of technology, you can use 1/100 or 1/60. This technology can not prevent blur when you are taking photos of people or objects moving quickly.

Another thing that can be used to prevent blur, among others, the camera holding technique and breathing techniques. By holding your breath while taking a picture, and put the body by meeting or leaning on walls, can help reduce the vibration that produces blur.

In addition to those mentioned above, there are still other factors that affect, among other things:

1. Direction of motion of moving subjects: Subjects were moving toward and away from the camera will be easier to freeze than the subject moves from left to right or vice versa.

2. The distance between the camera with a moving subject: The farther the distance, the more easily freeze the subject rather than a subject that is close.

In practice, we often can not use a high shutter speed to freeze the subject of the picture due to dark field conditions. Thus, by using these principles is our advantage.

If we are photographing people or objects approaching us from the front, then we can use the shutter speed a bit more slowly, so photographing subjects that are far from us. But be careful if your subject is near to us or movement from left to right / right to left camera, we need to increase the aperture / shutter speed if you want to freeze the subject movement.

DSLR Lens Buying Guide - Part 1

DSLR lens buying guide part 1 - is the answer the question "Which lens should I buy?" after we know the types of DSLR lenses. This post will discuss some of the factors into consideration when buying a DSLR Lenses. Each of the features below will be different in each lens.
 

Lens Speed

Lens Speed or how fast a lens is actually closely related to the maximum aperture is owned by the lens. Aperture is the size of the lens opening when the shutter button is pressed (or how much light enters the camera). Aperture is denoted by F (f-stop).

The smaller number makes wider aperture, and there will be more light coming in at one time. This means the shutter speed becomes faster. Lens speed should you know due to:

• Lens "fast" with a maximum aperture of f/1.4 allows you to shoot in relatively dark place better than the lens has a maximum aperture of f / 4 or f/5.6, but that does not mean a slower lens is not good.

• The "fast" lens allows you to retrieve the moving object without getting motion blur.

• Lens "fast" allows you to get the depth of field of thinner / narrower. This means that when you focus on a subject in the foreground the background will be blurry or out of focus. Having a lens 'fast' of course means it is possible to get focusing a little more 'tricky', given the depth of field is used very thin / narrow. For example, when photographing portrait of a face with f/1.4 aperture and focus on the eyes, then most likely you will find the nose a little out of focus.

• The 'fast' lens is usually more expensive than a slower lens.

• The faster lenses would be helpful in terms of flash photography in recording or taking ambient light.

As a reference:

• Lens speed aperture lens with f / 4 is usually good for general purpose photography with good lighting conditions
• f/5.6 requires good lighting or features image stabilization (IS / VR)
• If you shoot indoor without flash, then at least use a lens with f/2.8, and
• If you are shooting indoor sports then at least use f/2.0 or 'faster'.

Focal Length

Focal length is length of the lens. This measurement is the distance between the middle of the optical lens to the focal point on the camera sensor. What you should know is that the focal length of a lens inform you when photographing subjects how much will be enlarged. Focal Length also inform the angle of view.

Focus Distance
This is the measurement between the end of the lens with the closest point of object. This is useful when shooting in macro or close-up photography, because this type of photography requires a very close distance of the object to end of the lens.

Image Stabilization

This feature is useful for minimizing vibration or shaking the camera (Camera Shake). Most DSLR lenses is now equipped with image stabilization (the Canon lens known as IS, and the Nikon lens is known as VR).

Camera Shake is a movement that occurs when the shutter is opened. This incident had a greater impact on the photos when we use slow speed, no tripod, and when use a lens with a longer focal length.

Image Stabilization helps photographers reduce camera shake at low light levels, but it does not freeze the moving subject. Basically IS allows us to take photos at lower shutter speed which the camera aperture open a little longer.

IS features mean additional cost on a lens, so you need a consideration of whether the activity of shooting with lenses that require this feature or not. Example: Do you frequently shoot in low light conditions using a long focal length without a tripod?

Budget

Considerations in buying lenses when going to upgrade is the cost. Most people agree that "we get what we pay", and we prefer to upgrade the lens than replace the camera body (depending on conditions). A little wary of the 'kit lens', in many circumstances these lenses are good, but we think it would be better if we buy only the camera body and then choose a better lens than the kit.

Brand

There are so many opinions say that to produce great photos should use a lens with the same brand with the camera compared to using cheaper third party lenses. In our opinion, for the first time try to find the same brand lens with the camera body, if you can not find try to find the lens of a third party. The fact is that every lens manufacturer has produced good and less good lenses that have been circulating in the market. Do your research before buying a lens through websites and forums that provide a review and comparison.

To be continued...here

Some Causes of Blur Photos

Some Causes Blur Photos - This post is a continuation of the post Tips for Sharp Picture. In this post I will emphasize the causes blurry photo.

Here are some of the causes:

Sensor size - Camera sensor size varies, the larger, more easily create a blurry background. Camera phones or compact cameras have a sensor size is relatively small compared with the digital SLR camera. In the digital SLR camera, subdivided some kind of sensor size.
The smallest to the largest are: Four thirds (ratio of 4 by 3), there is a crop sensor 1.6 (Canon), 1.5 (Nikon, Pentax, Sony), there is also a full frame (Nikon, Sony) and medium format (phase One, Leica S2, Pentax 645D).

Aperture - By using a large aperture lens (f/2.8 or larger such as f/1.4), then the background becomes more blurred.

No focus - This may be a result of the focus on the wrong part of the object, too close to the object so that the focus can not be obtained, the error selecting aperture that produces a very narrow depth of photo (smaller f number, e.g. f/2) or take photos too quickly without check first in the viewfinder.

The ratio of the distance between the subject of the picture with the camera and the distance between the subject with the background - The closer the camera is to the subject of the picture and the farther your subject with the background, the picture becomes more blurred.
Example: When the camera is on your subject distance of 10cm, and the distance of the subject of the image to the background of 20m, it can certainly be very blurred background. This is because the distance ratio of camera to subject and subject to background is very large.
Conversely if the distance of the camera to the subject of the picture 20m, and the distance to the subject of the photo background 10cm, it can certainly be a very clear background / sharp.

Lens focal length - The larger the lens focal length is used, then the background becomes more blurred. Example: Background photo taken with a 55mm lens focal length more blurred than when taken with a 18mm lens focal length.

Moving objects - is another form of photo blur due to take a moving object by using a slow shutter speed.

Camera shake - shake the camera is usually derived from the movement of the photographers themselves while taking pictures to produce photo blur.

Noise - The photos were found spots of the image pixels, usually derived from errors in setting the ISO, the more ISO noise level is also growing.

And here are additional tips to get sharp photos:

1. Hold the camera correctly when shooting
The best way to overcome camera shake when shooting is to use a tripod but it is not practical to carry because of its size that takes place. The practical way is to hold the camera properly.

2. Use the camera and lens that have Image Stabilization feature
Many cameras and lenses currently equipped with Image Stabilization (IS), which helps reduce the effects of camera shake when shooting so that the resulting images could be sharper. But keep in mind that IS only helps stabilize the camera movement is not stabilizing the movement of objects.

3. Use a good lens
If you have a higher budget then buy a better lens to get a sharper image quality than always using a standard lens. For Canon lenses, better quality for L-series lenses (professional series lenses).

4. Clean the camera equipment regularly
Each finished using the camera moreover used outdoors, do not forget to clean appliances such as camera lenses and camera sensor from stains, dust and dirt as it will affect the images (cause spotting on the photo).

The conclusion of this post is how to make the background out of focus photo becomes very blurry or bokeh?

The answer is:

• Use wide aperture lens
• Use longer focal length
• Note the distance ration between camera, subject and background
• Use camera with big sensor size.

Pocket or DSLR?

Pocket or DSLR - There are two major groups of different types of digital cameras: Pocket and DSLR.

1. Compact camera (commonly called pocket camera), is a compact system and has integrated, has a whole section full of a digital camera.
2. DSLR camera, is a camera system that consists of two major subsystems, namely:

• mechanical-electronic subsystems (body), and
• mechanical-optical subsystem (lens)

Main Difference

The most obvious difference between the two categories is the ability of DSLR camera to replace the lens that will be used in accordance with the needs of photographers. In addition the issue of this lens, there are significant differences, but not visible, the difference in sensor size:

• Compact digital cameras usually have a smaller sensor size 1/2.5 inch to 1/1.6 inches.

• DSLR cameras have the larger sensor size, which is 22.2 x 14.8 mm (APS-C) or 35x24 mm (full frame).

• The development of sensor technology enables Olympus to develop smaller size (4/3 inch) than the APS-C DSLR cameras for her which was followed by Panasonic cameras with micro-4/3.

The difference in sensor size has an impact on the ability of a camera captures the light. The most obvious differences in results due to the influence of the size of the sensor can be seen from the level of noise in the photos using a high ISO (> ISO 200). The camera with a small sensor size would produce more noise at high ISO.

Though somehow, there are still advantages of pocket camera with small sensor, namely:

• Its compact size
• Light weight
• ease of use
• A more affordable price

What about picture quality and sharpness?

Apparently, the shooting conditions in the outdoor and sunny weather, it is almost impossible to distinguish the results from a compact camera or DSLR. More surprising yet, the images that we see on camera affected barely used. Ken Rockwell article below can serve as a reference:Your Camera Doesn't Matter and A $25 vs. a $5,000 Camera

In fact, production and market demand for compact camera / pocket remains larger than a DSLR camera.

How to Customize White Balance DSLR Camera

How to Customize White Balance DSLR Camera - This question will arise if we would shoot with complex lighting. Is the photographer able to overcome this? This post is a continuation of the post White Balance in Photography.

Some cameras, especially SLR and prosumer, provides manual white balance setting. Manual settings are the most accurate if we are confused by our light source color temperature. This usually occurs in a photo shoot with a more complex light sources (more than one type of color temperature). So the custom White Balance is the right way to solve this complex lighting.

Here's how to customize white balance correctly:

• Look for the white paper, white shirt, white walls, or any other with white color. If the white stuff is not available, you can use the gray matter.

• Place the paper or something white / gray so that lighted by the complex light where you will be photographing. Position the camera so that the paper fills the entire frame photos. (see picture above)

• Set White Balance in custom or manual mode, set the focus in manual focus position, then take a metering. Keep impartial exposure (not under but not over-exposure). Then photograph paper or object. The camera will detect the white and store the temperature, confirmation will appear on the camera's LCD screen when the settings are OK.

• The next step is to put a picture as the standard for white balance setting:

1. Canon camera settings (Canon 60D):

• Press the Menu button, use the Main Dial to lead to the Shooting Menu tab. Highlight Custom White Balance, and then press Set.
• Use the Quick Control Dial, highlight the photo you just took, press Set and then Ok.

2. Nikon camera settings (Nikon D3100): 

• Search White Balance menu. Select the Preset Manual.
• Select the Use Photo. It would appear that you have a recent photo taken. Select Image Select, then Ok.

An easier way is to use an accurate and additional accessories called expodisc or kenko, prices range from US$80 to US$150.

White Balance in Photography

White balance in Photography - is a crucial aspect in the world of photography and the effect on the final image. The camera is actually not really recognize colors. Displayed by the camera is how different frequencies of light reflected from an object to a different frequency of light that becomes the standard of comparison. An understanding of the process of color reproduction is very important in photography that require a high level of color accuracy, for example in product photos, fabric color, light graphics, etc..

Auto White Balance

Color 'white' was chosen as the standard comparator because it is a neutral color. In the full-frequency lighting conditions, the white color will reflect all light frequencies, so the white object is an object that reflects light with the highest intensity. But because it is a neutral, white would be red when illuminated by a red light, it looks blue in the light blue, and so on. Under these conditions, the Auto White Balance on the camera set up to recognize 'the reflection of the object with the highest intensity' and use it as a standard color 'white' to do color correction.

As a result, in certain conditions, the camera can reproduce wrong colors because there is no white object on the object captured. In this condition the required precision of the photographer to help the camera do color correction, but not in sunset/sunrise photography for example.

(Photo source: www.hootphotography.com)

White Balance Setting

Each camera has a different way of setting, so you should refer to the manual if it has not so far found a way. If you are still confused, use the auto white balance mode. The camera may not always be right, but at least more true.

Here are presets that are normally available on any compact cameras:

• Auto - the camera will guess the color temperature based program planted by the camera manufacturer. You can use it in most situations, but not in every situation. So try to explore to the more tricky lights.
• Daylight / Sunny - usually with the symbol of the sun, use while in the sun. Not all cameras have this white balance preset, because it is almost the same as the normal White Balance.
• Cloudy - symbolized by the cloud, use when shooting in cloudy weather. Usually this presets will generally give a touch more 'warm' than Daylight preset.
• Shade - usually a house or a tree symbol, use when shooting indoors (during the day) or you are in the shadows - not direct sunlight. The light is in shadow (shade) is generally cooler (blue) compared to shooting under direct sunlight, so the settings are a little warm.
• Tungsten/Incadescent - symbolized by the icon of the bulb. Because it is suitable for use when you are shooting indoors with tungsten light sources / incadescent like bulb. In general, these presets will cool color photos.
• Fluorescent - symbolized by the iconic neon lights, use when shooting indoors with fluorescent lighting. In general, these presets will warm color photos.
• Flash - symbols flash, if you use the flash (strobe), use this preset. The light generated by a camera flash can be quite 'cool', so this arrangement will warm colors on the photo.
• Custom - This will be discussed in the next post.

A summary of the description you can see above table.

Kelvin White Balance

Kelvin White Balance usually found on professional DSLR cameras. Basically, preset white balance are based on a temperature difference of each color of light. At Kelvin White Balance presets determined from an understanding of physics that objects with a certain temperature will emit light with a certain frequency as well. Solar light emitted by an object with a temperature of 5500K. Fluorescent light has a temperature of 4000K, 3000K incandescent lamp.
 

(Photo source: www.berkelphoto.com)

Error in degrees Kelvin settings will produce the wrong color. The benchmarks are:

• If the images produced bluer mean temperature setting is too low.
• If the images produced yellowish, then setting the temperature too high.

Types of Camera Lenses

As of today, there are many types of camera lenses on the market to meet the needs of photographers, both functional and just a hobby. On the job, a photographer sometimes use more than one lens, for example, a wide-angle lens to take landscape photographs, and a standard lens to photograph detailed houses.

My observation has been circulating in the market 6 types of lenses, namely:

1. Standard zoom lens is a lens with a vario lenses which focal distance can be changed and maximum aperture changes with focus distance. This lens is suitable for a variety of personal documentation purposes. Kit lens 18-55 mm, 18-70 mm, 28-80 mm are including these lens types. Because of crude quality, many people are looking for better quality. For example: for a wider zoom range to choose from 18-105 mm, 28-135 mm, 28-200 mm, and so on. For more sharpness normally used Tamron 17-50 mm or Carl Zeiss 16-80 mm.

2. Prime lens have a fixed focal distance so that have the best quality and sharpness, but the photographers should take a lot of foot-steps to adjust the composition and proportions of the photos. Lenses of this type include 50 mm f/1.8. Alternatively, for example, 50 mm f/1.4, 50 mm f/1.2, 85 mm f/3.5, 135 mm f / 4, and so on.

3. Wide lens is a lens with a shorter focal length to obtain the space of view (FOV - Field Of View) wider. Lenses that are of this type, including the 10-22 mm, 11-18, etc. Another development is the fish-eye lens, such as Samyang 8 mm.

4. Fast lens is a lens with a wide aperture. The lens has a number of aperture f/2.8, f / 2, f/1.8 or smaller. The advantage, with a wide aperture, the shutter speed can be obtained higher. That's why it earned the nickname fast lens. The side effects of a wide aperture is lens blur or bokeh due to narrow DoF (Depth of Field).

5. Macro lens is a lens that has a special construction that allows for photographs of objects from a short distance (50 cm or less). True macro lens has a 1:1 magnification capability, while the specifications that widely used are 100 mm f/2.8 Macro, 50 mm f/2.8 macro, and so on. However, 3rd party lens manufacturers such as Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina develop vario lens with 1:4 macro capability, 1:5 or 1:7, such as the Tamron 18-200 Di II LD Aspherical Macro which has a minimum object distance of 45 cm with a magnification of 1:4.

6. Super telephoto lens is a lens with a focal length above 180 mm, for example 100-400 mm, 170-500 mm, and so on. The lens type is suitable for shooting sports, wildlife, bird watching, and other objects that do not allow photographers approach the object directly.

Apart from the focus distance and aperture, note also the additional features on the lens that will provide convenience (with prices to match), including:

• Motor high quality lens that is more responsive, thus ensuring sharpness of moving objects. Lenses of this type usually has a special code that is different from any manufacturer, such as SSM (Super Sonic Motor), HSM (High Speed Motor), DX, SAM, etc.

• Image stabilizer is a feature that allows you to absorb shocks in a photo shoot with a low speed. This feature also has a different code, such as IS (Image Stabilizer) in the canon, VR (Vibration Reduction) in Nikon, SSS (Super Steady Shoot) on Sony, etc.

• Coating (optical lens coating chemicals) is an important factor because the response of a digital sensor to light different from the reaction to the film. Problems with the coating can cause flare, chromatic aberration (CA), ghosting, etc.. Digital lenses typically have several layers that are marked MC (multi-coated) which in general has a better performance than the old lenses are still single coating.

• Aspheric lens is a construction containing aspheric lens elements and serves to reduce the refraction spherical aberration caused by the shape of a convex lens.

• Low Dispersion is a minimal dispersion (spread) of light of optical element, so that the intensity of light reaching the sensor becomes higher and obtain more details.

Maximize Your Kit Lens

Maximize Your Kit Lens - because lens is the most important camera equipment. A good lens in well maintained will certainly last a long time and its age will exceed the camera body, which is some opinions advise that invest in the lens, and not on the camera body.
 

Usually when you first bought a 'real' camera (SLR camera) will certainly get a kit (default) lens, for example, Canon cameras with Canon EF-S 18-55mm IS II lens. Most kit lenses cheaper price, because it is considered to be one set of producers outstanding camera affordable to consumers and can compete in the market. With the kit lens does not mean you can not be creative in photography. Never mind what the people said, lens kit you have now is the most appropriate for you to start creating your photography style. Especially if your financial situation has not been possible to buy a better lens. To inspire your activities, you can see pictures of the photographers shots through google search engine with keywords 'kit lens photography'.

Now let's discuss how to maximize your kit lens. Kit lenses usually have focal lengths of 18-55mm. So here occurs combined 18mm lens and 55mm lens into one. Lens with a focal length of 18mm is a medium wide-angle lens that suitable for landscape, architecture and the environment photography, while a lens with a focal length of 55mm is a short telephoto lens that suitable to compress the perspective and for portrait or detail photography.

The above statement means there are many opportunities that you can exploit its focal length between 18 and 55mm, doesn't it? You can study the behavior of each focal length in the range. The lens is the 'eye' of the camera system, and your photos will be experiences in increasing your knowledge to know the character of each focal length.

Some of kit lens has other very useful features, namely image stabilizer. In the Canon lens is called Image Stabiliser (IS) and Nikon is called Vibration Reduction (VR). However, some cameras sometimes already have this feature. This feature allows us to take pictures with a low shutter speed, which means you can shoot without a tripod or a buffer at a focal length of 18mm and a shutter speed of 1/4 or even 1/2detik and produces sharp images. This feature is very useful when we are shooting in low-light atmosphere, and of course will greatly facilitate shooting in the daylight and evening. 

Lacks of Kit Lens
After a time you are using the kit lens, will certainly encounter some limitations. It's not the absolute poor, but a sign that you have been at a stage where you really need another lens to produce better pictures anyway. Here are some of the limitations of the kit lens:

Focal Length: you will feel that you are on the 18mm kit lens was not wide, of course you need a shorter focal length so that can produce more dramatic. In this condition, you can begin to consider purchasing a new wide-angel lens.
On the other hand, if 55mm focal length does not gives you the distance that you want on the subject, then you really need a telephoto lens. Usually if you experience or if you like photographing wildlife or sports.

Autofocus: Autofocus on the kit lens tends to be slow and a little bit noisy compared lenses are more expensive, if the performance of the kit lens autofocus hinder you, maybe it's time to upgrade.

Aperture: The kit lens is a lens that is 'slow'. This lens does not have a wide maximum aperture. The reason is simple: The wider the maximum aperture, the greater the lens body, and this will lead to even more need for the lens body, and it means also increase the cost of production. Most kit lens has a maximum width that is small to reduce the market price.

Maximum aperture at 55mm focal length at most kit lenses are f/5.6, if it is less wide, you can buy a zoom lens that cover the same focal length with maximum aperture of f/4 or f/2.8, or 50mm prime / fix lens with a maximum aperture of f/1.8 or more. A wider aperture on the lens is really going to help you to take pictures in low light conditions or be creative with narrow depth-of-field.

Quality of Lens Body: If you want to test the resilience of the body lens or shooting in bad weather conditions, then of course you'll need a lens that is built better than the kit lens. The more expensive lenses usually have a body and a metal mounting and can be used in bad weather (rain, snow).

How To Maximize Your Pocket Camera

How To Maximize Pocket Camera - is useful article to pocket camera users. If you want to change shutter speed and aperture setting to your pocket camera, how to do that? There are only two answers to do that:

1. Upgrade your camera
This is the most ideal answer, i.e buying a digital SLR camera, or at least an advance pocket camera called as prosumer camera. The two kind of cameras give you free manually setting of aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance, moreover DSLR camera could be changed its lens according to your requirement. If you have much money this answer is suitable for you. If you have no much money or you don't want to buy DSLR camera at the present time, you should try the next answer.

2. Maximize your pocket camera
Pocket camera is designed for daily photograph. It can give you information about photographic situation and kind of picture you need. Each mode of photography apply special setting to the camera.

Several pocket camera settings to maximize your pocket camera: 

• Adjust White Balance with available light. Improper white balance will produce tonal colors that do not match and sometimes bizarre. 

• Use the appropriate Scene mode. In each pocket cameras usually reserved several scenes to meet your shooting according to lighting situations and motion of an object being photographed.

• Use the Macro mode on an object that is close, without this mode, the object a short distance (less than 50 cm) will blur.

• Make sure the object gets enough light. The role of light is very important because you use low ISO. So get a light as bright as possible, if necessary use a flash or studio mini box.

• If you want to get shallow depth of field (blur background), apply 'spot focus metering' and 'Portrait mode'. The camera will set wide aperture.

• If you want to get deep depth of field (all focused), apply 'Landscape mode', and set 'multi focus metering' the camera will automatically set narrow aperture.

• If you want fast shutter speed, apply 'Sports mode'. The camera assumed that you want to freeze object movement. Its also applied to photograph children activity.

• If you want slow shutter speed, apply 'night mode'. Camera will automatically turn on flash and set high ISO that can make noise to the picture. Turn off flash and set ISO to 100 or 200. You should use tripod or other camera fixation to get sharp and clear pictures, and apply timer to reduce shake effect.

Resume of above settings shows in table below:

And additional tips is to avoid using digital zoom as it will add noise to your photos.

Why Golden Hour?

Why Golden Hour? As a continuation of previous post, this post will discuss why golden hour is very long-awaited by photographers. This is due, the sun gives an amazing light effects on each photo snap which make photographers more creative.

Here are some of the reasons photographers look for sunny golden hour:

Photo courtesy of http://365raysofsunshine.blogspot.com

Gorgeous warm light: It can just make your subjects glow.

Photo courtesy of http://aubreyrd.com

Silhouettes: Shoot into the sun and your subjects will be amazing silhouettes.

Photo courtesy of http://photoble.com

Lens flare: another possibility with shooting into the sun is lens flare which can add atmosphere to your shots when used in moderation.

Photo courtesy of http://www.digital-photography-school.com

Indoor photography: If you have a window or open doorway where the light get in through, you can make beautiful indoor photos too. So golden hour need not just be an outdoor thing.

Photo courtesy of http://instantfundas.com

Moody Clouds: The light in this time also hits the sky and landscape around your subject and they create mood and atmosphere in your shots.

Photo courtesy of http://xaxor.com

Black and White Possibilities: Monochromatic? Who's afraid! Just do it!

Photo courtesy of http://josiemarancosmetics.typepad.com

Rims of Light: It’s particularly good through hair, when you shoot with the sun behind your subject, you create rims of light around them which accentuate features.

Photo courtesy of http://lifecycl.es

Shadows: You can play with your subject's shadow by shooting at certain angles.


Do you have any experience with the golden hour in addition to what I mentioned above?

How to Get Golden Hour

Golden hour is the time which is very awaited by outdoor photographers, because it give the best lighting in a day. It is so called magic hour by pro-photographers, because it can give amazing effects of light on their photos.

The most important of photograph is light, and the photographers' favorite time of the day is Golden hour. Golden hour hour is the time at dawn to an hour after sunrise, and an hour before and after sunset. Those times gives us the best lighting for outdoor photography. Golden light come from side could inspire photographers to take landscape, portrait, silhouette, sunrise, or sunset photography, it enrich landscape textures and dimensions. See the different mount Bromo crater below, the first take at noon, and the other at golden hour. Which photo looks more beautiful?
 

Bromo crater at noon

Bromo crater at golden hour (Photographer: Jessy CE)

Sky gradation from blue to reddish, lighting comes from side solidify hills textures, reddish light makes warmer color of the landscape. These condition make more beautiful picture.

You can calculate exactly golden hour at your place with these software:

1. The Golden Hour, it is a site calculating when golden hour appears at your place. Just show your place on the map.
2. Twilight calculator, it looks like The Golden Hour.
3. Golden hour app for IOS or for Android.

Definitely, you have to wake-up early and never give-up to take photographs till evening.

Good luck!

Photograph A Dark Object

Photograph A Dark Object - Moreover if the object is dull dark color. It makes lens always moves to get focus picture. It's caused by lacking of light from the object.

Camera requires enough light to do focusing and metering. Focusing done when you half press shutter button, focusing motor lens will move the lens to get focused  shadow to camera sensor, while camera calculating aperture and shutter speed according to the light get in.

Dark object bounces a few light, thus sensor doesn't feel change of intensity when lens is moved. If focus is successfully found, low reflection of light will cause sensor arranging shutter speed very slow, sometimes more than 1 second.

This problem could be solved with a couple ways:

1. Apply setting manually:

• Find bright object that same distance with the dark object.
• Set exposure mode to P, do focusing until camera calculate exposure successfully. Read the value.
• Shift exposure mode to M, and set aperture, shutter speed and ISO with the value.
• Set lens to manual focus.
• Take photos from different angles.

2. If there is no manual setting, however AE-lock and AF-lock are available:

• Put bright object parallel distance to dark object.
• Apply AE and AF locks.
• Do focusing and metering to bright object.
• Take photos with AE & AF lock applied to the dark object at the different scenes to get best picture.

3. If there is no manual setting, AE-lock, nor AF-lock:

• Put bright object parallel distance to dark object.
• Do focusing and metering to bright object.
• Hold half press shutter button.
• Direct camera to the dark object, and take the picture.
• Repeat these ways with different scene program to get best picture.

Hopefully become useful tips.

Night Shot Tips

Night Shot Tips is continuation of Low Light Photography tips posting. This posting is talking about setting your camera before you photograph your night moments. Night give us volunteer lighting comes from spot light, vehicle beam, or many others. It could be an artistic picture if we know how to catch the nice moments.

Some camera equipped with 'Night Mode', however sometimes it doesn't give satisfaction. The causes are:

• 'Night Mode' sets higher ISO, so it makes higher noise.
• Wide aperture will make shallow DoF that blooming circular light.
• Shutter speed too fast, so moving light recorded in short time.

So it's required manual settings appropriate to the condition your photo object. The  way setting are:

• Set ISO at 100 or 200 to reduce noise.
• Set aperture at f/8 or higher to get deeper Depth of Field (DoF) and perform star effect of lamp light.
• The shutter speed is set according to the shooting early, typically ranging from 2 seconds or slower according to you need.

 

Another setting is applying 'P Mode', take one picture, see camera setting of the picture. Shift to 'M Mode' set shutter speed with calculating: 1 stop aperture wider is compensated by 1 stop shutter slower.

Additional tips:

• Try to take photograph at 15 to 20 minutes before sunset or 15 to 20 minutes after sunrise.
• You should equip with tripod or hold the camera on the fixed place.
• Apply timer or shutter release (wired or wireless) to avoid shaking camera while shooting.
• When human will be performed in the foreground, apply slow-sync flash.

Tips for Beginner Photographer

Tips for Beginner Photographer - This post is suitable for novices in the world of photography
 

1. Do not be hurried buy expensive photography equipments
My experience says, it's very possible you can make good photographs by pocket camera. More and more you make photographs, you increasingly understand photography technique. So not always during learning photography, you must apply expensive camera and its accessories.

2. Consider buy tripod
Cheap tripod but competent steady should you consider, especially if your hands have tremor habit. Your photographs would more glorious if you apply timer feature or shutter release when you use tripod.

3. Bring your camera every where you go
Good moments could suddenly come every where you are, if you always bring your camera and hurry up taking the moment, nothing to loose, more than anything else when you volunteer bring tripod. If you have a camera-phone, you can take some photographs as notes of the moment you recorded by your camera.

4. Make a list moments would you record
If you can not bring your camera, at least you are carrying notebook or cellular phone to record the place you want to take the photographs. Do not forget to record important thing of photography, such as lighting etc., so you can come back there at the good time.

5. Do not overlook "normal" object in photography
You may not see anything interesting and worth photographed in the living room or backyard, but at least try to look around with a new perspective. You might be able to find the  light spectrum or some wildflowers in your backyard, it is often a simple object can create a good photograph.

6. Enjoy the process of learning photography
The most interesting thing to learn a hobby like photography, there is not enough words to learn it. A lot of inspiration could be found around you. Look at all of this using the eye of a photographer and you will find photo opportunities that you did not realize before.

7. Take advantage of a free online resource to learn photography
Learn photographs produced by professional photographers through sites such as flickr, or websites that share information on photographic techniques, where can you find inspiration and tips on photography. If you are interested in learning about post-processing and still no budget to buy software like Adobe Photoshop, try using free software like GIMP.

8. Continue to test the camera settings
Your pocket camera has a feature that can be far more flexible than you know now. Read the user guide or manual to help interpret the symbols contained in the camera settings. Try photographing a subject using different settings, see and learn, and choose which one best results you like. When to re-review the photos on the computer, look at EXIF data of each photo to see the back camera settings do you use when shooting.

9. Learn the basic rules
As we know, a lot of information about the world of photography spread over the Internet. Start reading a couple articles about the photographic composition. Be open to opinions from more experienced photographers about photography techniques they use. You certainly need to know and understand the basic rules before breaking them, don't you?

10. Take photographs routinely
Try to photograph something every day, if you can not do that, then make sure you practice on a regular basis so you do not forget what you have learned before. The best way to do this is to give yourself a photographic challenge each week.

11. Do not be afraid to experiment
If you use a digital camera, perform continuous testing and most likely you'll find something you like, and of course you will learn a lot through this learning process.

Good luck!

Don't Use Digital Zoom of Your Pocket Digital Camera

Digital Zoom of Pocket Camera - There is a feature in pocket camera that you should not use it: Digital Zoom.

Pocket camera usually equipped with Zoom feature. There are two kind of zooming: Optical zoom and Digital Zoom.

• Optical zoom yield by optical glass movement inside the camera. It works such as binocular.

• Digital zoom yield by enlarged interpolating cropped image. this feature will loss image details to enlarge it, so the yield is semi blur photos. See the difference at pictures below.

Tips to reduce noise is avoiding digital zoom feature. If you want to enlarge the image, it's better you come closer your pocket camera to the object.
The question is, "Why digital zoom feature attached to pocket camera?"

Canon PowerShot N

Canon PowerShot N - Along with Fuji will launch new products at the Consumer Electronic Show Las Vegas, January 2013, Canon also launched its new product. Fuji launch its mirrorless cameras, Fujifilm X100s, while Canon launch pocket cameras, PowerShot N.

This time Canon introduced a super tiny pocket cameras with approximately 7x6x3 cm dimensions making it easy to pocket in shirt or pants i.e. easy to carry wherever you go. Because of its small size Canon gives the tagline "capture every moment in your life".

PowerShot N bears a CMOSplus sensor with resolution of 12 megapixels and has ISO capabilities up to 6400. With a 2.8-inch capacitive LCD display of precision and its swivel allows us when shooting from difficult angles. PowerShot N equipped with 28mm f/3-5.9 lens that has an optical zoom up to 8x.

With a pocket camera sales trend down due to attacked by advanced smartphone camera, Canon just back to basics by making the camera simple and small, but can meet the needs of everyday moments photographed.

Another advantage is the PowerShot N equipped with wi-fi, so we can directly upload the photos to wherever we want. Reported PowerShot N will begin to circulate on the market in April 2013 with prices ranging from US$ 300.