I remember looking at a photo once of a model van sitting amongst some hills. I remember thinking that it was an incredibly detailed model, and that surely it must have been built by a professional model-maker or someone who took their hobby incredibly seriously. And I remember being astonished when I discovered that it was in fact a real van, shot with a telephoto lens and then processed to look like a model.
Since then I've been fascinated with the idea of creating fake miniature shots, and I...
Posted by Chris
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March 21, 2011
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Time for a quick look at another DSLR concept that confused me when I started out: aperture.
Your camera's lens is there to focus light onto the sensor. Light enters the front of the lens and exits the rear... simple. But the lens opening is only a certain size, and this opening is referred to as the aperture. Try making a ring with your finger and thumb and imagine that this is your lens; the hole that you look through is the aperture.
The aperture controls the amount of light passing thr...
Posted by Chris
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March 14, 2011
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One of the really cool features of DSLRs is the ability to keep the shutter open for extended periods of time, which gives you the ability to play around with light to great effect. I've had fun experimenting with light trails and "light graffiti". Here's how I got on, and a few tips I picked up on the way.
Cars are excellent for photographing light trails; they're fast and, at night, emit good strong light. The first time I tried this I didn't have a tripod with me which is a nightmare give...
Posted by Chris
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November 30, 2010
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I have to admit it (and you'll have realised it)... this blog has stalled. I am, however, still keen to learn more about photography and pass on what I pick up... and to learn with others!
So I want to ask for your help. Can you comment and tell me if there's anything you particularly want to know about photography? What questions do you have? What techniques do you want to try out?
I can't promise to cover everything, but I'll certainly do my best. Go on, tell me what you want to know!...
Posted by Chris
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November 6, 2010
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I occasionally look at the various cameras on the market and wish I could afford them, even though I'm really quite happy with my entry-level Canon EOS 1000D. Canon's new EOS 7D is one of those cameras that makes me think, "maybe next time... when it's time for an upgrade".
It boasts an 18 Megapixel APS-C Canon CMOS sensor, and continuous shooting at 8 frames per second for up to 94 shots! Its viewfinder also covers 100% of what the lens is picking up, meaning what you see is exactly what you...
Posted by Chris
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October 16, 2009
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One of the key features of a photograph is that is freezes motion... unless you're Harry Potter, that is. In the normal course of things you want the shutter speed to be fast enough that it freezes the scene in front of you and keeps everything sharp; things that are moving too quickly appear blurred. But you can actually use that bur to artistic effect by going for a longer exposure instead!
Before we look at a couple of ways to do this, what effect will it have? Well, the photo above is of ...
Posted by Chris
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September 19, 2009
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Remember when, in the days before digital photography, the only instant photographs were Polaroids? In case that's passed you by, let me explain: polaroid film was a stack of sheets that could be exposed to light and, when they were pushed out of the camera, developed themselves using chemicals from a pouch at the bottom of the frame. It was all automatic (although for some reason everyone waved their polaroids around while they were developing).
In those pre-digital days these things seemed ma...
Posted by Chris
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September 5, 2009
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Unless you live in the Atacama Desert, you're pretty likely to find that it's raining when you want to take photos occasionally. I recently headed to my local racing circuit partly to enjoy the racing and partly to see if I could get any photos of the cars... but it was raining heavily.
Unfortunately, rain and expensive electronic devices don't mix too well. I got chatting to one of the racing teams' photographers who showed me that there was a lot of condensation in the LCD screen on top of ...
Posted by Chris
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August 22, 2009
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Shutter lag is the reason you miss that perfect shot. It's the reason the bird you're photographing is in a different position when you look at the image. It's the reason the car you tried to snap at the local racing circuit is completely out of frame! Shutter lag is the difference in time between you pressing the shutter release and your photograph actually being taken.
There are a few causes of lag in compact cameras (updating the viewing screen, focusing, writing the image to memory, to na...
Posted by Chris
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August 8, 2009
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Cameras are amazing objects, capturing emitted light and turning it into stored information that can be reassembled as an image. It's no wonder some cultures regarded the camera as a magical object capable of stealing your soul! The light your camera captures can be filtered in a variety of ways by adding filters to the front your lens, one of which is the very handy polarising (polarizing) filter.
The physics of polarisation is a bit deeper than I want to go here, but if you're really intere...
Posted by Chris
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August 1, 2009
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