Understanding Camera Lenses

The world of lenses can be astoundingly confusing when considering terms such as Prime, Telephoto or Zoom, Focal Length: short or long, Depth of Field, Wide Angle, Telephoto, Image Stabilization, Aperture, F-Number, Shutter Speed, and so on.

After considering writing an article explaining all of this I ran across one by Cambridge Color which is simply unbeatable. If you have the time to absorb this it will refresh your understanding or give you data you have long been wishing you had.

An example of the information within this article which is valuable is the following tutorial on how to estimate how exposure time is relative focal length.

"A common rule of thumb for estimating how fast the exposure needs to be for a given focal length is the one over focal length rule. This states that for a 35 mm camera, the exposure time needs to be at least as fast as one over the focal length in seconds. In other words, when using a 200 mm focal length on a 35 mm camera, the exposure time needs to be at least 1/200 seconds-- otherwise blurring may be hard to avoid. Keep in mind that this rule is just for rough guidance; some may be able to hand hold a shot for much longer or shorter times than this rule estimates. For users of digital cameras with cropped sensors, one needs to convert into a 35 mm equivalent focal length".

The site has an About page as a start
And if you have further questions Sean invites you to join their new Digital Forum here

Enjoy the read and the site. It is a wealth of information and resources.

Which New Camera to buy?

There are simply too many choices to make picking a new camera, an easy task. In the past we could simply walk into our local camera store, and see most all of the new cameras available. We could pick one up, take it outside with a suitable lens attached by the store rep and shoot a few shots just to get the feel. And in some cases we could come back next day to view the pictures we had taken. I'll assume many of us knew a couple of the store reps well enough to get this done.



Today whenever I walk into a store the cameras are either cabled down to a security board or the rep you are asking knows more about their cell phone features than the cameras they are supposed to be selling. So where does one start? Well to make things a little easier dpreview.com gives you all of the latest new camera reviews with a few simple clicks.

But here's a second choice if you want to see a website doing reviews using an Editor who has a physics major from the University of Kent. I don't know if that means he is using that knowledge base in a review but he certainly has the ability to research. That website you'll find at Camera Labs.

And yet a third review place is called Trusted Reviews.

You may find other reviews at places such as CNET.

Imaging Resources.

Or Digital Camera Review.

But no matter where you go, slow down and take your time if you are relatively new to DSLR's. Their is a lot to cover and in order to make the right purchase without going through a half dozen different ones before you land on one you are comfortable with and does the work you want it to do. Even if you have had a number of cameras, read the whole review.



Yah I know some of this stuff is boring, but trust that it all is relative and meaningful. Hey I hope this helps. Let us know what you think of the different sites I've listed above. One of them has a lot of flashing ads going on, but the rest are quite tame. Good luck and enjoy the reviews.

Here's the Answer to Shooting Outside Block

We've all heard of writer's block. But there is also OutideShooter's Block. I hear this all the time: "I am going to start shooting this year again. I just don't know what yet" or "I'll think of something soon" But the 'What' evades us. The answer is already in our heads, we just have to shake it out to reveal it.

Let's take for instance the last time you drove down the street, or walked in your neighborhood. You saw trees, your watched other people, their dogs, you noticed steps and staircases, benches, doors, old windows, the hardware on doors and windows, building styles, outside art perhaps, taillights, flowers, insects, leaves unfolding, cloud formations, curbs, I could go on until I prevented myself from actually shooting some of this myself. But I think you get the idea. While there are some really special sites and subjects to shoot, literally anything including rusted scraps of metal, mud puddles and so on can make for an interesting subject and even more enriching get us going again. One day I was sitting on my porch watching the water go by in my stream to the pond on a sunny day when of a sudden it began to rain.


It was just a simple thought. Rain & sunshine reminded me of John Fogarty's song "Coming Down Sunny Day".

So let anything at all inspire you. If you were to take a walk and shoot only steps & staircases for a day you would certainly find some of your images given the proper perspective and lighting, very interesting. Then with a touch of Photoshop even more so. You don't have to know what you want to shoot in every case, just get up and go. If you wish to link back to your shots, please just comment here and leave a link. I'll be sure to look them over and so long as they are not inappropriate, approve it. Good luck.

What to do First when Setting up a Shot DSLR style

There are two basic types of photographers, all Commercial photographers aside: the grab & shoot type, and the precise, "I don't care if I miss 100 to your 1 shot, I'm getting ths 1 shot right" (Precise) type. Which are you?

If you are the grab & shoot type, move onto another blog or website cause this will bore you and make you a better photographer.....ooops did I catch your attention?

OK grab-n-shoot types are perfectly fine for the weekend get-together, but then you won't need your Nikon D300 or your Canon 5D for that event. So no shame in that. But if you are of the Precise type, I want to discuss the mechanics of setting up a Landscape or Nature shoot.



All DSLR's have important settings which should be taken into account when setting up a shot. Think about the amount of light you have available. In most instances you will have adequate light and can easily create a good picture, but if what you are looking for is an exceptional photo you will be wanting to dial down the ISO. Doing so decreases the noise to the least that your camera body's sensor can manage.But it also introduces a slower shutter speed, if the light is not in-line with your camera's settings set by it's particular manufacturer. And you won't know how this affects your individual image captures without reviewing the Histogram. So start as low as you can reasonably expect to, I usually start at 100, then dial down to 50, & take a careful look at the graph. If it shows too much detail to the left, move it up one setting say to 100 or 200. The opposite is true if it loads up on the right. Then you can afford to shoot at a lower ISO. That is the ideal.

Next when metering lookk carefully at your Exposure setting. This is second nature if you are viewing on the LCD, but is even more precise if using the Histogram. But even before this you will notice the meter in the viewfinder. leaning left demonstrates you need to bring up the exposure setting & leaning to the right tune it down. The needle is supposed to be centered for the best exposure. But then you may purposefully want to expose to the right or left. So before you fire off a series of shots, make sure it is where you want it.

If your camera has available Picture Styles (Canon lingo-apology to Nikoon or Olympus owners) then dig into your Menu & choose the correct Style for your subject. Then too make sure your adjustments of any particular Style, say the Landscape Style is set with the proper adjustments for your shoot. Or leave at all 0's. Then too you might check to see if the Noise Reduction setting (if you have one) is set where you want it. I like mine set to Off, because I am always trying very hard to shoot with the lowest ISO already & don't want to have to sharpen anymore than I have to in Photoshop later.

Make sure you have set your image format to where you want it; JPEG, RAW or both. And what quality do you want? For me I never ever take it off Large for highest resolution images. But I sell my work. You may want to have many shots vs fewer.

White Balance. I leave mine set at Automatic because no matter how much I fiddle with it I find that Canon has done a really fine job at designing this feature. Somw will agree and some won't, but for me I leave the setting alone.

Bracketing: this may or may not be a matter of relevance depending upon your subject and the available light. I find that when I am teetering on the edge of good to not-so-good light I find that setting for 1 below and 1 above center gives me 3 shots to choose from. If I want I can also manually adjust the exposure as much as I like.

When shooting for a particular DOF capture, I may choose to change the AF point by using the Multi-Controller button and wheel. Say I am shooting a grove of aspen. There is a desire for me to pick out one individual tree which I think will make for a better shot than Evaluative or Partial, so I'll either choose Spot & center on that or I will move the AF point where I want it in the Viewfinder.

For the time being I won't go into any other details as I think these are enough to overwhelm even a veteran photographer. Look these over, then if you have any questions, read your Manual. Grab your camera and your manual and go outside for a practice or test shoot. Move through each of the above settings, one at a time, while taking at least 3 shots at each setting. I like finding a comfortable place such as a park bench or a log, depending on your location.

You will begin to produce better photography when researching just a bit with your settings prior to shooting. And the above will get you there much quicker.

Daily Free Stock Photo

Ever found yourself wishing you had a quick photo to work with without having to go through all the work of resizing and converting to JPG. Here's your chance to get a daily free stock photo. What's the catch? Well of course you'll need to register. Check it out. Get The Crestock Daily Free Stock Photo Here

Retouching For Smooth Skin

OK you're probably wondering why I would place a tutorial about how to smooth skin on my site, which I call Shooting Outside. But I can easily justify this, (tongue in cheek) as this was shot, yup, outside. No matter. The important thing is here's how to smooth out skin in nearly any shot if you are using, and here's the key, Photoshop CS3. Take a look & let us know how you like it. Would it be worth spending $650?

The Chief Print available now

Click on the Title above to be taken directly to 'The Chief'.

If you are looking for something just a little bit different, a bit out of the ordinary, you might want to take a look at this print. Or for that matter the entire Gallery of Black & White Color images.

This one is called simply 'Chief'. A Giclee´ Print available on nearly any paper you wish. This print on Photo Luster Paper starting below $50.