Monthly Archives: December 2009

What is the first lens I should buy?

Posted on by

Well, first go read this post, and if you just bought your camera, I will try to talk you out of buying anything.

 Ok, if you are sure you need another lens, then you need to think about what you need a lens for. I am assuming that you are looking to replace the kit lens that came with your camera. Most of the time, that lens is around an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6. (In this post I will be talking Nikon, but Canon has lenses that are very similar.)

So, why do you want a lens? Other than that glass is cool. Are you wanting more reach, to get images of birds in the trees? Are you wanting to take pictures of kids in low light? Would an external flash be better? Would you like something with a zoom, or something with a fixed focal length? Do you have $300, or $3000? Do you know what f/3.5-5.6 means?

You need to be able to answer those questions to make a truly informed decision. Reading the Digital Photography Book (post) by Scott Kelby would help with this too.

Ok, lets take a look at some reasonable (for photography) options.

Nilkon 50mm f/1.8

Nilkon 50mm f/1.8

If you are looking for some “fast glass”, the traditional recomendation is the “nifty fifty.” Fast glass, or a fast lens, is a lens that has a very large minimum aperture size. This refers to a small aperture number, such as f/2.8, or f/1.4. The kit lenses are usually of a variable aperture, meaning they are not constant through out the zoom range. Zoom lenses are usually more expensive to make in a constant aperture, so most people look to get a fast lens with a single focal length. What does this do for us? By “opening up” the lens to a wide aperture, you let in more light, so the shutter speed can be faster when taking available light pictures. Also, your depth of field gets smaller, meaning that the area in the photo that is in-focus is smaller. This can be good and bad depending on the picture¬† you are taking.¬†

Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S

Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S

The Nikon 50mm f/1.8 that most people call the “nifty fifty” has been a staple of most photographers, and the price hovered around $120 – $150 depending on where you get it. (amazon) There are a couple of issues with this lens though. First of all, your camera may not work with it. Cameras like the D40, and D3000 do not have a traditional motor drive in the camera body. This means that autofocus will not work with the nifty fifty. I used this 50mm lens manually focusing on a D40 for quite some time. Worked great for flowers, not for kids. You need a AF-S lens in Nikon terms to get auto focus. That means that the lens its self has a motor in it. But, it makes the lens more expensive. Amazon has this version for about $440.¬†

Nikon 35mm f/1.4 AF-S
Nikon 35mm f/1.4 AF-S

Problem #2. The 50mm lens is a great lens. It used to be called the “standard lens” and many film era cameras shipped with just this lens (a 50mm). So what’s the problem? Sensor size. If you want to use your new “fast glass” to take pictures indoors without flash, the 50mm¬†can be too long a focal length. You might want to consider the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 AF-S instead. (amazon) ¬†On most digital cameras, the sensor is smaller than a film negative. This makes lenses appear to have a longer focal length, and why the 35mm works better indoors. 35mm x 1.5 = 52.5mm on a APS-C “crop sensor”. (I am not going to get into this anymore today, but there are lots of places to read about this,¬†like¬†here)¬†The good news is that the 35mm lens is cheaper. Amazon has it for about $200.

Nikon 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6

Nikon 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6

How about if you want to make small, or far away subjects look bigger in the viewfinder? A longer zoom? Or move your feet. Seriously. Many shots can be taken by simply getting closer to your subject. Also, telephoto lenses are not just for “making things bigger”. They also compress the scene. They make the background and the foreground appear closer together. For birds and¬†other critters, you may not be able to get close enough with your feet. If you want a telephoto, you are looking at getting something that zooms to 200 or 300 in a variable aperture, or you are spending really big money.

Some of  you may already have this lens, the Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6 AF-S VR. (amazon) Sometimes this lens is bundled in a two lens kit with some cameras. This lens is only $200 Р$250, and for a lens of this price, is really quite good. The VR (vibration reduction) helps to reduce hand shakyness, especially at slower shutter speeds. This was my first lens purchase, and one that I found useful.

What about macro? Fixed focal length zooms? Wide angle? All in one zooms? Take it slow. Learn your camera and the lens you have. See how close¬† you can get with your lens. You can get fairly close “macro-ish” shots with a kit lens. Move your feet and get closer to subjects. The 18mm of most kit lenses is reasonably wide. Learn how to use that. That said, I will tackle some of these options in another post soon.

Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 AF-S VR

Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 AF-S VR

If you want a little bit more reach, a sharper image, and have some extra money, the Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G AF-S VR is considered a very¬†good lens for the money. You can find this item for less than $500. (amazon) ¬†At $500 the cost is getting more expensive, but is still reasonable in the world of camera lenses. I don’t own this lens, but many people I respect have and like this lens.

 

Happy Shooting.

What is the first Digital Photography Book I should get?

Posted on by

Tdigital photography bookhe first book you should read is your manual. I know, I know, that is not what you wanted to hear. But you really do need to read your manual to understand what your camera can do.

What’s after that? What is the first Digital Photogarphy Book you should get? I would suggest, funny enough, the Digital Photography Book, by Scott Kelby. After that, check out the book page here on my blog.

Why did I suggest that book? For one thing, you don’t need a DSLR to do lots of the stuff in this book. It is easy to read, and written with quite a bit of humor. What Scott says, is that he is trying to explain things to you as if you were a shooting buddy that went out shooting with him. Kelby himself says in the book, that this is not the most technical of books, and if you want more detail, you will need to find another book. What you will get are simple recipes and instructions on how to do certain types of photography, and how to get certain types of shots.

You will also get introduced to some new equipment. Do you have to buy it? No, but some things do require some extra gear to get the best results. Photography isn’t a cheap hobby, but make sure that what gear you buy will be worth it for you.

There are two other volumes in this series. They get more advanced and more in depth with each volume. You will get more into flash photography, and using some other gear. Start with the first volume. It will give you a good exposure to what you might want to do with photography, and what gear you might put on your wish list.

You got a DSLR for Christmas. Now what do I buy?

Posted on by

Nikon 3000New Shooter: Hey photo guru, I just got a new XBR-43 Mega Ulta Canikon DSLR for Christmas. My first few test shots don’t quite look the same as the ones I see in magazines and online so, what else do I need to buy?

Photo Guru: Nothing.

New Shooter: Uh. Come again?

Photo Guru: Nothing.

New Shooter: Well, it is obvious that you don’t work for a camera store…

Photo Guru: Gear is good, vision is better.

New Shooter: Yea, ok, whatever. So did I get the wrong camera? Your pictures look much better. You must have a better camera.

Photo Guru: Have you looked on flickr or contest by lines to see what camera was used to shoot the photos you like?

New Shooter: No, but I am pretty sure they have awesome cameras.

Photo Guru: They do. Canon Powershots, Canon Digital Rebels, and iPhones. (flickr camera stats)

New Shooter: What? I am sure my camera cost more than those camera’s did!

Photo Guru: Gear is good, vision is better.

New Shooter: That’s the second time you said that, and it still doesn’t make any sense.

Photo Guru: Your camera’s a tool you use to take pictures. You still need to know how to use your tools. That said, even the best carpenter with the best tools can’t build an amazing chair if they have no vision of what they want that chair to look like.

New Shooter: My camera is a tool? I thought I just point and shoot?

Photo Guru: You can. If you are happy with those pictures, then be happy with those pictures, but there must be some reason you thought you wanted a DSLR. If it was just because you thought that you would get better pictures, then learn to make better pictures with a point and shoot camera.

New Shooter: But don’t you need a certain level of camera to take great pictures?

Photo Guru: Check out thebestcamera.com. Those pictures were all taken with an iPhone. Lots of these pictures are really great. But notice, there are no pictures of high speed sports action in low light with the athletes perfectly sharp. If that’s what you are looking for, you will need a certain level of equipment that the iPhone can’t handle. But there is an endless amount of creative possibilities that you can try with what ever equipment you have.

New Shooter: Well, what can I do with my camera?

Photo Guru: Learn what you have. That goes to the heart of why I said “Buy nothing.” You need to shoot, shoot, and shoot some more with the gear you have. You need to learn what happens at small and large apertures, fast and slow shutter speeds, high and low ISO’s. You need to shoot in bright light and low light. You need to learn what all the buttons on your camera do. You need to know what types of images you get from the lens that came with your camera at 18mm and 55mm, or what ever extremes your kit lens does.

New Shooter: I thought this “tool” as you call it was a little smarter than you make it out to be. You seem to be suggesting that I have a lot of learning and work to do to take pictures with this camera.

Photo Guru: That depends. Again, what I said earlier, if you have happy with the pictures you take in auto mode, you are done. Be happy. If instead you look at those pictures and say, “There’s something not quite how I want it…” then you have some work to do.

New Shooter: Ok, I am getting kind of overwhelmed by all these buttons and terms. I can’t learn everything at once.

Photo Guru: You don’t have to. Just take pictures. Then read the manual. Every weekend pick a new feature to explore. It will come. Before long you know a lot of stuff.

New Shooter: Ok, I will go work with the tools I have, but where does this vision thing come in?

Photo Guru: That is much harder, and I recommend you don’t worry to much about it at first. You need to have your tools down pretty well before you can envision an image in your mind and then try to get it in the camera. It takes even more shooting to be able to impart a vision into an image that you want someone else looking at your pictures to see. If you want to explore vision more, check out the pixelatedimage blog by David duChemin. He has some great ebooks he sells, and a great book on vision: Within the Frame. I stole his phrase “Gear is good, Vision is better” too.

New Shooter: Ok, if vision is getting ahead of myself a bit, is there something other than a camera manual I can read?

Photo Guru: You can check out this book page on my blog. It lists the books I have read and reviewed, and the ones I have on my list to read.

New Shooter: Alright. I’ll check those out. I try to read that manual too. Ok, see you later… I have to go shoot!

Photo Guru: That’s the spirit. Good luck, and have fun!

Read it later is great iPhone app/Firefox plugin combo

Posted on by

read it later firefox pluginI came across what I¬† think is a great concept. Read it later works a little like temporary bookmarking. The idea is that you will have articles that you come across that you want to look at again, but don’t want to hold in your bookmarks to come back to again and again. These “read once” items can get lost in your book marks too.

Read it later comes as a plug-in for Firefox,which I am using, and an iPhone app. They indicate on the website they have options for IE, Safari, and other mobile devices too. The Firefox plug-in works great. There is a small button to the right of the RSS and Favorite icons up in the search bar that you can use to add pages to your list. There is another small arrow to the right of the search entry that allows you to access your items. The plug-in displays an icon, title, and short description so it is easy to see what you have saved.

A great feature is that you can create an online account. With this account, your items are synced immediately across whatever browsers you have the plug-in installed in. This is great to allow you to “send something home” for example to read later.

readItLaterThe iPhone app is needed because you can’t add a plug-in to mobile safari. You can add a javascript based Bookmarklet, which allows you to mark items you find in safari to be added to your read later list. You need the app to took at and read the items you have marked and would like to read on your iPhone. The app lets you read and manage all the items you have saved to your list. The free version seems to do what I want: let me read the items, and rotate the screen. You will have to check their site for what extra the paid version does.

What I like is the way to get items to my desktop. When I follow along in twitter, I keep finding people linking to sites that have flash, that I can’t see, or a resource I want to download on my desktop. What I used to do, is copy a url and then email it to myself. Painful. This is much better. On a page in Safari, I press the bookmarks icon, then the Read it later bookmarklet. The item is saved. You can even edit the title and give it keywords if you wanted.¬† Then when I get home, I have simple access to these items in Firefox via the plug-in.

Press the arrow on the right of the tool bar, and there’s the list. Select, read, then mark the item as read, and it dissapears off the list. It really only goes the the archive, and you can retrieve items from the archive if you want to. Pretty slick.

I am using the app as a web reading to-do list, and a way to get content from my iPhone to my desktop. Works great for me. Check out Read it later.

Visionmongers Book Review

Posted on by

visionmongers book coverThe title: Visionmongers, Making a Life and a Living in Photography is a perfect title. It was written by David duChemin who writes the pixelatedimage blog. He also wrote the book “Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision“. (See also this “interview” I did with him after reading Within the Frame.)

This book is a blend of the two. David is very clear in this book that if what you want is to make a living in photography, he wants to help you find out how to make a life in photography. There is a difference. You need to find a way to do something that you enjoy, find a balance between work and family, and find a way to feed your family.

If you are thinking of leaving “your day job”, or have recently jumped ship, or are starting to make some money from photography, this book is for you. In fact, if you are a working photographer, and feeling frustrated, this is also probably a good read for you.

So how does David DuChemin tell you how to make a life in photography in Visionmongers? He scares the shit out you. Seriously. I put the book down several times to go shoot instead of read. I kept thinking “Am I really good enough?” (Which is something that he addresses.) I think this was somewhat his intention. David follows a thin line (successfully I think) where he tries to make sure you understand just what you would be getting into. This is not an easy road. This is not a glamorous job. This is not a two hours a day job. This is hard work. Damn, I gave away the killer secret in the book already. Oh well.

David doesn’t want to scare you out of the life of a photographer. He is not afraid of anyone taking his job. He has made is own job. That’s a big theme in this book: making your own job. He just wants to make sure you really want to do this.

So after getting shocked a couple of times, and trying to take a real look at who you are, what your photography is like, and where you want to go, if you are still reading, David is back to all smiles. Back to giving honest, practical information, and concrete ideas about how you can get going as a full time paid photographer. (Ok, the whole book is refreshingly honest, but the second part isn’t as scary 🙂

There is a ton of information in here that while very relevant to photographers, isn’t really about photography:

  • Understanding what you are good at, and what your market wants
  • Learning how to serve your customers and exceed expectations
  • Basic marketing (logo, business cards, website)
  • Importance of contracts and insurance
  • Understanding finances (assets, liabilities, debt, pricing)

You aren’t going to be reading this book to learn what you should be shooting. Look to “Within the Frame” for that. You are reading this book because you want to know exactly how to make the transition from amateur to professional. You get the answer. You get the answer from several people in fact: Chase Jarvis, Gavin Gough, Zack Arias, and some others. David and the others all say the same thing:

  • Be good at what you do (taking pictures with vision)
  • Find a market to serve (while doing what you love)
  • Work really really hard

No silver¬† bullets here, but there is sound information you can apply in your own journey. As someone who wants to make the transition, I think this book succeeds in preparing one for the journey ahead, and in providing some great “1st step” marketing business advice. David mentions some other books in this one as follow ups for some of the business and marketing ideas that he has presented too. Who knows they might end up getting reviewed here.

Anyway, if you fit the criteria I mentioned at the top, of a photographer that wants to transition to paid work, part or full time, or a beginning photographer that wants some more business advice, then this is a must read.

The price of forced overtime

Posted on by

office

The picture is an old office cube of mine taken with an iPhone, and has nothing to do with the post, other than it is about the office. But not “The Office”. I am a part of a large group that has been told that working Saturdays for the next 2 months is mandatory. Many have been working overtime for several months already.

So, why do people ever need to work overtime? Pretty simple really: it is perceived that there is more work to get done before the delivery date than managers think can get done within normal working hours. What I started to wonder, is if this will really get more done. If you do simple math, adding 8 hours to everyone’s day sounds like it gives you more time to get more done. Sounds like it, but you take human emotion out of the equation.

We can all do more for short periods of time, especially if we see the value in it. We see value sometimes when we feel like it is our responsibility to contribute to the company, or when we feel a sense of loyalty to a product, or group that will use the product. Or, we can see value to us in particular when we are given something in trade. This can be extra income, time off, or something else that is seen as a reward, and that our time was valued.

When this sense of value is missing, it becomes a very different equation. It is also why contractors (like myself) are not as annoyed by mandatory work. We get paid by the hour usually. We get paid more for coming in. On the other hand, when a salaried employee is forced to come in, they need to feel a sense of value. When the employee only sees the employment as a job, or starts to feel like they are being asked too much, management no longer get the extra they are looking for.

People want to feel valued, and feel like the effort they are putting in is compensated accordingly. When someone feels like one side of the equation has been altered, they change the other side. Sometimes this is even done subconsciously. People may not rush into work. Take longer lunches. Go for a longer coffee break. When someone would normally work an extra 15-30 min at the end of work to finish something, now they no longer start something new 30 min to an hour before end of work. Maybe they decide to use the sick days when they have a cold that before they would have worked through. That extra day, it isn’t an 8 hour day. In late, out early, going off site for lunch…

Don’t forget the lasting issues. Contractors come and go. Some might go early… Employees can look for other work. It is expensive to lose business knowledge. The feeling of loss of trust and being undervalued are very difficult to get back. You can loose it in a single email. It can take months to get back, if it ever does…

So what do you do as a project manager and your project is behind. You need the employees to feel invested in the extra effort. And you need to ask. You may be surprised at the effort you get when you ask. Trust me, whether it is telling kids or adults they have to do something, or giving them a choice, choice wins out every time. The other issue, is that people have lives outside of work. Saturdays may not work for some people. What if they would work 48 hours a week spread out over the week? What if they could squeeze more into the day than they do right now? What if you and the employee could agree on the extra work that needed to be done, and then let the employee get it done on their own schedule? What if they are offered something out front whether that is some time off, or even movie tickets. What do you think the response will be?

Which takes more work out of management? A mass email, or an individual meeting with each employee to discuss the situation that you are in? Pretty obvious, but the bigger problems will come if you take the easy way out.

Free OnOne Lightroom Develop Presets

Posted on by

hawkins-2

I came across some free presets some time ago, but didn’t really give them a try until a couple of days ago. They are the free presets by On One Software, called WOW. These were developed for On One by Jack Davis. There are two sets of presets that come in one installer. One set gives you a bunch of color correction presets and one click tone and other color adjustments. The other set gives effects like Antique and special gradients. I kind of like them. One thing that is nice with how presets work in Lightroom, is that the Navigator gives a fast realtime preview of the effect before it is applied. The downside is that the preview is really small, and I end up trying presets and then “undo-ing” a lot.

The image above shows the ‘Antique’ preset. I toned down the exposure a bit. Added a vignette, and voila.

There are also some adjustment brush presets. Those are really neat. Some of the brushes that come with this set are for skin softening, and teeth whitening. They work pretty well I think. Much faster than doing it in Photoshop. For me, anyway. I found that the preset for lightening the irises was too much on the pictures I was testing with. No problem, you can play with the brush settings yourself and tweak the look after you have painted the brush. Even better, you can “scrub” the adjustment. If you are in the edit mode, hold your mouse over the pin, click, then drag right or left to adjust. This works like magic. Watch the sliders and they will all move in different amount proportional to what is there when you start. This works to push up and down the effect very nicely.

arianna

The effect you see above is a brush. The Wow-Background Blowout brush. The brush does quite a good job around the hair and dress when the ‘auto mask’ brush is on. I think if I took more care it could have been even better, but with just a couple of minutes, it cleaned up the window shade background quite a bit. If you haven’t tried brush presets before, you should give them a try.

If you don’t know where the brush presets are… head over to the develop module, and select the brush tool. There is a label called ‘Effect:’ and beside it the effect drop down. There are a few that come with lightroom, but here is also where the Wow ones would show up.

Can an Andrew Bird concert teach us about Photography?

Posted on by

I had the opportunity to attend an Andrew Bird concert last weekend. It was held at St.Marks Cathedral. That’s a fabulous venue for this kind of concert. It just wasn’t particularly my favorite kind of music. Now, don’t get me wrong, this guy is incredibly talented, and the church was full of people that completely loved him. I did like some of his music. But not all.

So, while I was listening, I found my self watching the lighting. I watched how they changed the colors, and went from dim lighting with hard focused spots, to lots of warm glowing amber light, depending on the mood he was trying to convey. I started to wonder if I did the same thing when I lit people. Do I do enough to light someone purposefully to convey a mood to the scene?

Andrew is all about layers. Lots of layers. He uses more audio layers than I have ever used photoshop layers. He starts off by playing a fairly short piece into a looped recorder. This loop replays it’s self, all the while recording the next layer. They keep stacking and stacking. His main instrument is a violin. I have never heard so many different sounds out of one instrument. It was fascinating. Picking, strumming, fingering, hitting with the bow, and of course, playing with the bow as you would expect. He is technically amazing.

So, I started to think… how well do I layer? With flashes. I was at a workshop with Joe McNally, and he did exactly the same thing. Started with one speedlight. Then added a softbox. Then added a trigrip. Then added a light bounced into the floor. Then another. How about more volume with another light behind the trigrip. Lastly, add a hair light. Layers. Always in control. Always adding something deliberately one at a time. Do you do that? Can you build an image one layer at a time?

One of the things that I had a hard time appreciating was toward the end of his songs. At some points, he lost me. Too many layers. They diluted the message. No longer were there discrete layers. Each new layer was no longer complementing the next, but starting to muddy the whole thing. So what would Joe do? Tear it all down and start over. It was one of the things that he talked about. When you get to the point where things are out of control, and you start throwing speedlights around because it doesn’t yet feel right, and more must be better…. just start over. Tear down, turn off, and start again.

I was amazed at how similar this artist was with a photographer. I had never thought in those terms before. If you get the chance, give Andrew a listen. You may learn something about photography.

Joe McNally Copied Me

Posted on by

I have been really slow at getting over to look at Joe McNally’s web site recently. Just checked today. Just noticed that on Dec 2 he posted about a double exposure image here. I had posted about a double exposure image on Dec 1 here!

Only thing is, he shot his months before I even new that I could shoot a double exposure shot in my camera. So, not copying at all, but a funny co-incidence that we posted within a day. But I did do the same concept, so I am pleased that I was on to something. I did the same lighting, but not rotated quite so far, and with only one person. Joe did it with two. (He likes to one up you) The idea of using two different lights, one for each person was the same. The idea of the focus cursors was the same too, but more clear from Joe’s description I think.

The other neat thing from Joe’s shoot is the portable black background material. I figured it was shot in a studio, like mine, but then I saw the setup shot. I like it. I think I am going to check out getting, or making a frame like that. I have a couple of sheets I use for backgrounds, but can’t hang them on location very well. This would work well.