photography tips Archives - Page 3 of 13

Hack Your Canon Point-and-Shoot Camera

canon camera — Owners of Canon point and shoot cameras can have fun with firmware hacks

Owners of some models of Canon point-and-shoot cameras have some interesting features that can be added to their cameras with the help of CHDK firmware hacks.

CHDK stands for Canon Hack Developer Kit and can add features like RAW file output, motion detection that’s fast enough to catch lightning in a bottle, automatic bracketing, full manual control, zebra mode, a live histogram, and crazy high flash sync speeds.

The changes are temporary and can be reset just by switching data cards and resetting the camera. All the same the software is free and experimental, you’re responsible if something goes wrong.

Even better CHDK is being actively developed, so you’ll have new features being added all the time.

If your camera is on the support camera list in the FAQ all you need is a spare SD card and you’re right in business.

CHDK does not replace your camera’s native firmware, it loads as an add-on program that extends the firmware’s capability in lots of interesting ways.

For DSLR users of the Canon 5D MK II, 550D, 60D, 50D, and 600D, you also have some nifty firmware hacks you can play with over at Magic Lantern. Initially developed for video users it has since been expanded to find some of the features found in CHDK.

There’s some debate about whether using CHDK or Magic Lantern voids your warranty so it’s worth some research before deciding whether to try it. Messing with the firmware is never completely risk free, even if you’re upgrading the factory firmware.

Still there is no firmware fun for Canon 7D users. Magic Lantern has finally got the blank firmware to read properly, but no time frame on further developments.

If you have one of the compatible cameras, read the installation instructions carefully and go have fun.

The Sunny 16 Rule

Outdoor photo — This photo was taken of a dark subject on a partly sunny day - If you guessed roughly -2 stops off Sunny 16, you are correct. F11, iso 400, 1/250th of sec

If you know about the Sunny 16 Rule, also called the Sunny f/16 rule then you’ve either been in photography a long time or are a student of the craft.

Sunny 16 is older than most of you reading this and reaches back to a time when the light meter was hanging around your neck instead of being inside the camera. It is one of those old standards slowly being consigned to history by the introduction of multi-point intelligent metering systems, though it will still be relevant to people serious about learning manual photography.

For those of you determined to learn manual shooting, and I salute and encourage that desire, Sunny 16 is how you get your settings in the ballpark for shooting outside. The rule says for outside in full daylight start with f/16 and set the shutter speed to the inverse of your ISO.

So outside in the sun, start with f/16 and if you’re using ISO 200, set your shutter speed to 1/200th of a second. If your ISO is 400, then use 1/400th of a second and so on.

It’s one of those guidelines that every old photographer knows and is fairly accurate for outdoor exposures. You can even use it as a starting point for partly cloudy and overcast days. For a partly cloudy day you might keep the ISO/shutter speed the same and open the aperture to f/11. For a cloudy day go with f/8 or, if you’re worried about depth of field, leave the aperture at f/11 or f/16 and cut the shutter speed in half. So for a partly cloudy day you might leave the aperture at f/16 and the ISO at 200, but use 1/100th of a second shutter speed instead of 1/200th for a sunny day.

Also keep in mind your shutter speed selection can also depend on your lens. If you have a 300mm lens, you don’t want to use a shutter speed less than 1/300th of a second to avoid motion artifacts. For a 500mm lens your lowest shutter speed would be 1/500th of a second. Make adjustments to the other variables accordingly.

Set your camera on “M” or manual mode and give it a try, I think you’ll find it’s kind of fun. You might even catch yourself leaving the camera set to “M” for progressively longer periods of time.

DSLR cameras today are marvels of sophistication and yet, for so many photos the “perfect” exposure is not always the most technically accurate one. So far no camera manufacturer has figured out how to duplicate your creative genius and I don’t think they ever will.

Organize Your Photos In 2012

get organized — Get your images organized with a backup drive and a copy of Lightroom

It’s the beginning of a new year and while you’re promising to lose weight or stop smoking, add another item to your agenda: Organize your photos and update your backups!

While flooding in Thailand has driven up the price of hard drives, they’re still incredibly cheap by historical standards. So don’t use drive prices as an excuse not to keep your backups up to date.

You can still get storage like this Buffalo 1 TB USB storage device for less than $150. For that price you can get two of them and keep one off site somewhere. You don’t even have to plug these into the wall, they draw their power from the USB port. It doesn’t get much easier or less technical than that.

A terabyte is a huge amount of storage. The Fantom Drives G-Force MegaDisk has multiple interface options that include USB and firewire for $129.00.

Online storage is also a possibility but I wouldn’t trust the cloud as my only solution. I use Photobucket albums for my proof size customer images, but never for production images.

While online storage is a better deal than it used to be, there are still too many potential pitfalls in end user agreements. TwitPics users are sometimes surprised to discover that their images can be sold to media companies and used in ways they may have never imagined.

The legal question of image ownership if one of the big photo sharing sites ends up in bankruptcy court also has yet to be determined. If you’re a professional, that’s worth thinking about.

The online storage I am more comfortable using are the ones that allow you to store your own encrypted containers. That way if the ownership of my files comes into question during bankruptcy or government seizure, it’s no problem as long as I have local backups.

For organizing the local copies of your images it’s hard to beat Lightroom. If you’re lucky enough to be a savvy tech user you can get a huge amount of functionality in Digikam. Unlike commercial software, which seems to feel compelled to change direction periodically, Digikam just gets better and better over time.

The only guaranteed way of insuring your photos will still be around 100 years from now is to print them out on either metal plates or paper embedded with metallic inks. But with good backup discipline and regular maintenance, you can at least expect your digital image library to last through your lifetime.

Take Better Pictures Today

Take better holiday photos this year straight out of the box - By Nina from Australia

Many of you will be receiving or have asked for digital cameras for Christmas. Or maybe you got your new camera before the holidays so you could take pictures on the way.

This year I want to help you get better pictures right out of the box. No more blundering around with shots containing massive foreground and family photos that look more like suspect line up from an episode of CSI. This year things are going to be different. Follow these tips for getting great shots from day one with your new camera.

Read The Manual

I realize some of you think manuals are totally retro. This little paper book written by people determined to make you as miserable as they apparently are in their little, unhappy cubicles by making the manual as dry, boring and devoid of joy as humanly possible.

Really, when you break it down, you can read through most camera manuals in about an hour. You don’t have to memorize it, just know where to find things if you want to look something up.

Most digital cameras today have an amazing array of built-in functionality that never gets utilized because owners don’t realize it’s in there.

Get In Close

The biggest rookie mistake with a new camera is inevitably focusing on the subject in the center of the picture and leaving way too much foreground and background.

Get in close and, when you think you’re plenty close enough, take another step in. Get in so close all of your subject can’t fit in the frame.

Warm It Up

Most digital cameras have an automatic white balance setting called “cloudy”. That’s for use on overcast days when lighting is heavy on the blue side. But, as it turns out, even on sunny days your pictures can look a little on the blue side, so don’t be afraid to try the “cloudy” setting, even in bright sun. You may the like warmer colors you get as a result.

Gorilla Pod or UltraPod

On thing you’ll regret later in life as the photographer is not having more pictures of you doing things. Being the family scribe is a great thing, but use one of these clever supports and the self-timer to get in the shots yourself.

Get High On Resolution

Crank your cameras picture resolution up as high as it will go. You’ll thank me later. Photos may seem huge by today’s standards but, in a few years, they may seem laughably tiny. Shoot the biggest photos your camera will take.

There are more tips to come, but these should get you over the most common mistakes people make. Just remember to read that manual!

Learn To Lie To Your New Camera

daylight flash fill — This was a tricky exposure with skin tones bracketed by dark and light colors. You can see the fill flash in the sunglasses catch lights which also helped with the shadows under the ball cap

Honesty may be the best policy in life, but one of the keys to getting the best pictures is learning to lie to your new camera. Unfortunately, in many ways, your relationship with your new camera will be one based on deceit. But it’s okay, your camera is not going to feel betrayed and you’re going to like the results.

Lie About White Balance

I guess you could classify this as little white lie (ba-dum pah!). Specifically you’re telling the camera the light is really a different color temperature than its electronic sensor is measuring.

Your camera is measuring the temperature of the reflected light reaching the lens and comparing it to daylight. It then uses those calculations to try and determine the type of light source illuminating the subject. These days your camera is really good at making that calculation but there are still good reasons for you to lie about it.

Most cameras balance out full daylight a little on the blue end of the spectrum. Human perception likes skin tones a little on the warmer side, with a slight reddish gold cast. So lie to your camera’s white balance calculation by telling the camera it’s really cloudy outside and not clear. Your camera will shift the color to the red end of the spectrum thinking that it must be overcast outside.

You can also do something called white balance bracketing and just run through all the options and pick the one you like best.

Lie About Exposure

Our trail of deceit next takes us to exposure. On the Auto setting your camera is going to meter several points in the scene and set an average exposure right down the middle for 18 percent gray and try to balance the luminosity. You can lie to your camera and make it underexpose by pointing the lens at a lighter area of the frame and then push the shutter button half-way to lock the exposure, or some cameras have a special exposure lock button. You can go the other way and make it overexpose by pointing at a dark area.

The exposure lock feature on your camera is one of the best pro tips for consistently getting better photos.

Lie About Being Indoors

When taking photos of a person outside, go ahead and lie to your camera and tell it that you’re really inside and that it should use the flash.

On some electronic level it will know there’s really plenty of light, but since you’re the boss it will figure the flash into the equation and give you a nice fill for the subject’s face. It’s one of the great ironies in photography that your camera’s built-in flash is an absolutely dismal light source for pictures, but a fantastic fill light.

While it’s terrible to suggest starting off your relationship with a new camera based on lies, it’s really okay. You’ll get much better pictures while having way more fun and, scout’s honor, I’ll never tell.

What happens in the camera, stays in the camera. Or something like that.