Konrad Dwojak Photography - Photographer in Brussels, Belgium

How to Increase the Frame Rate in Burst & Continuous Modes

konrad — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:22:01 +0000

I was playing with my NIKON DSLR some time ago after buying a new ultra fast SD memory card and I discovered few things that will the frame rate in the burst mode or continuos mode. Burst mode or continuous shooting might be very useful when taking sports pictures or kids for example. So how to make your camera take pictures faster in burst mode or continuous shooting and how to increase the frame rate? You have to consider at least few things:

1) The File Type (JPG vs. RAW) – whether you shoot in JPG or RAW has a tremendous influence on the frame rate in the burst mode or continuous shooting. Because RAW files are much bigger in size due to the additional information they contain, it takes much longer for a camera to save them and to process them. Therefore, if you want to shoot faster in the burst or the continuos mode, you should choose JPG as a file type;

2) Memory Card’s Speed – I’m not a memory card guru and quite honestly, my knowledge about them is limited. However, what I can tell you is that SD memory cards vary when it comes to their saving and reading speeds. Buying a fast SD memory card will ensure that camera will be able to save faster pictures. IMPORTANT: your SD memory card’s speed is not as important as your camera’s buffer!

3) Camera’s Buffer – the size of camera’s buffer is actually more important than the speed of your memory card. Buffer is a specific amount of built-in memory in a camera that serves to store the image while it is being processed. Once the image has been processed, it is sent from the buffer to the memory card.The size of the buffer is important and the bigger the better because when using burst or continuous mode, and the buffer is filled, the camera may slow down the speed of which it takes photos, until the buffer is sufficiently empty to increase the frame rate;

4) Turn Off Noise Reduction – some cameras (NIKON for sure) has a built-in noise reduction function. This features automatically reduces noise for ISO 800 or higher and there are different levels of noise reduction. I noticed that when noise reduction is turned on, it heavily influences the frame rate in the burst or the continuous modes. Therefore, remember to turn noise reduction off in your settings in order to minimize the image processing time and to increase the frame rate;

5) Turn Off VR (Vibration Reduction) / IS (Image Stabilization) – both Nikon and Canon have their systems which help in minimizing the possibility of blurry images in situations when shutter needs to be opened for bit longer. In Nikon this is called VR (Vibration Reduction); in Canon this is IS (Image Stabilization). If you ever used these, you might noticed that the period between pressing the shutter button and the actual movement of the shutter is much longer when VR is turned on. This would also decrease the frame rate in the burst and the continuous modes. Therefore, turn VR / IS off;

6) Shoot in low ISO - I noticed that the camera works a bit slower and the frame rate is much lower when taking pictures with high ISO. Therefore, I would suggest to shoot in ISO 200 or even lower because higher than that, the frame rate will decrease;

7) Autofocus off or in continuous / continuous servo modes – a camera needs some time to set up focus in the autofocus mode. Thus, depending on the measuring method, autofocus may decrease the frame rate. The best way to increase the frame rate to the maximum when it comes to autofocus is to turn autofocus off. However, there might be situations (for example when taking pictures of a moving object with a small aperture value) when you need autofocus on. Then you can switch the autofocus mode to AutoFocus Continuous on NIKON and Continuous Servo on Canon. This way, the camera will track an object and adjust the autofocus continuously, which reduces the time for adjust autofocus from ‘scratch’ and increases the frame rate in the burst and continuous modes.

Scary seagulls

konrad — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 09:57:54 +0000

I sometimes try to compose photographs in such a way to make it look dark, mysterious, even scary. But sometimes such decisions are made in the post-production process or both. Birds can create this great scary effect in a picture and not only Hitchcock’s black crows can do that but also white seagulls – this is at least my personal opinion.

I’m not a person who gets very excited when photographing birds probably because I hardly even can come up with interesting and unique ideas and composition concepts for photography which includes birds. Therefore, I have a standard rule in such situations: make it scary and mysterious. That’s what I did when I was in Poland for my winter holidays. There were so many seagulls that I couldn’t pass them by without taking few pictures. If you visited you would know what I mean. The sheer population of the birds makes people who rarely take photos reach for their iphone 4, disposable or digital camera to take a few snaps. They are impressive, and beautiful. I have to admit that I’m not extremely happy with this photos but at the same time I don’t think that they are too bad – so I would like to share them with you

Weekend Brussels Photo Walk

konrad — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:36:40 +0000

It has finally started to be a bit warmer in Brussels and it’s possible to stay outside without freezing to the ground after 5 minutes. I couldn’t miss this opportunity and I spent a weekend walking around and doing my first Brussels Photo Walk. As I’m not so familiar with a city yet, I got lost few times but that actually was the fun part! I moved to Brussels in September 2009 but I have been so busy, that I didn’t have time to do any proper photo walk before. I plan to have a photo shoot outside soon but I need to wait at least another month for much warmer weather.

I hope to have time for another Brussels Photo Walk soon, so feel free to get in touch with me if you’re interested in joining!

When dark clouds take over the sky

konrad — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:06:53 +0000

This is once again a picture taken in Gdansk, Poland during my winter 2009 holidays but this time a little dark, scary and mysterious.

My father took me to Wisloujscie Fortress (you can read about it here ) on a beautiful but very windy day. There was a watch tower used to observe whether any enemies tried to enter land from the sea. Although the view was beautiful, I couldn’t stay there for more than 5 minutes because of extremely cold wind. So I quickly snapped few pictures and went back down. The result you can see attached to this post: ‘When dark clouds take over the sky’.

Low-Key Lighting Photography – Portraits of Musicians

konrad — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:14:15 +0000

I don’t take low-key lighting pictures often. Don’t ask me why, I just don’t know. But sometimes, I can’t resist to take such pictures. I personally believe that low-key lighting photography can have a particularly strong effect for certain type of portraits. I like to use low-key lighting especially in those portraits where a person’s personality and background are enhanced by a tool/instrument/object within a picture that is associated either with a personality, a hobby, background or an occupation. Those of you experienced with low-key lighting will realize that it might be hard to use such type of lighting both for a person and an object within a frame. I understand that some of you might not be familiar with low-key lighting, so what is it?

Low-key lighting is a style of lighting in photography and can be seen as an opposite to high-key lighting. Low-key lighting provides higher contrast to a picture and the controlling color of a picture is black. Low-key lighting provides an opportunity to highlight only the contours of a subject or an object and to use fill light or a reflector to illuminate shadow areas in order to control the contrast.

I met with some of my university friends for a small reunion in November 2009. I hadn’t seen one of them, Anna, for a long time because she spent considerable amount of time in Alaska in the past few years. During one of the conversations, I heard that Anna plays a guitar and without much hesitation, I grabbed a guitar from a corner and I handed it over to her.

The result are those low-key lighting portrait pictures, which create mystery and at the same time focus light on particular subject within a picture – in this case a musician and her instrument. I didn’t use a reflector for these pictures, just SB-900 SpeedLight.

Settled in Brussels

konrad — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:37:13 +0000

Sorry to everyone for such long silence and thanks to all of you who sent me emails asking what was going on. Most of you are probably already aware that I moved recently to Brussels and I was busy arranging everything and settling down in the capital of Europe.

The first impression of the city on me was crushing – I got a kind of a ‘city shock’ after moving from a small city like Maastricht to a much much bigger one like Brussels. I have to admit that it took a couple of weeks before the shock went away…actually I don’t this is gone completely because it’s hard for me to acquire my photography spirit/creativity back at the moment Hopefully the situation is going to change soon because tomorrow I have a photo session at a customer’s place.

I’m also looking for a place for a photo studio in Brussels and I hope I will find something soon. Although my hopes are much easier than the reality because I don’t have enough money to rent or even buy a place for a studio but I hope to meet someone who will be kind enough to enable me to use some space for free. I will also have to make some new photo equipment purchases by the end of this year and get my equipment insured. The latter is quite important because I had some bad experience in the past when I wished to have insurance for photo equipment. It looks like I will have lots of expenses in the future for all that but I will have prioritize with them because I don’t have enough money at the moment.

Today’s picture: It’s a typical low-key picture and I tried to be creative with it as for my first picture from Brussels. It’s a view from my living room and if you look closely, you can see my ghostly posture on the right.

Next Stop: Gdansk (Poland)

konrad — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:56:41 +0000

I find less and less time everyday on things I would like to do (like updating my photo-folio). However, I like to keep myself busy and I’ve been busy thinking for the past couple of days what photography equipment should I take with me to Poland (for those of you who don’t know: I leave there on Saturday for 3 weeks). Overall, I don’t have too much equipment but when you travel by plane, every thing you put in your suitcase has to be well thought before it actually makes to the suitcase.

The main problem I have in making my decision is with two things: the light reflector and the tripod. I will definitely shoot some portrait pictures but I won’t have an assistant with me to hold the reflector (well an option is to ask a model to hold a reflector when you take a picture of a face only but never mind). Decision #1: the light reflector stays at home.

Second thing: the tripod. I have a relatively small Giotto tripod…but…will I need it? Hmm… might be useful to put flash speedlight on it and position the light source appropriately. However, there is a ‘but’: I will take pictures outdoor and it could be a great opportunity for me to work and experiment with natural light sources. Besides, I don’t see myself carrying a tripod. HA! Poland! It would be stolen probably anyway! Decision #2: the tripod stays at home.

That was quick decision-making process! Wasn’t it?

Holidays! Oh..wait…

konrad — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:01:04 +0000

Ah! Summertime… time to relax…time for holidays! Unfortunately not for me this year. Because of some personal issues and organizational matters, I’m unable to go on holidays. Even my short (3 week) trip to Poland, which starts the coming Saturday, will be more about work and organizing ‘stuff’ than holidays. After all, who visits a family for holidays, right? I have few plans to shoot some pictures while visiting Poland but unfortunately other duties will have the priority this time.

From the Attic: Belgian Countryside and my new photography motto

konrad — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:24:09 +0000

I think this photography portfolio will soon turn out as a combination of a portfolio and a blog, Why? Well, I have found much more pictures ‘from the attic’ (taken with my old camera(s)) and I really have nothing special to write about them. Sometimes there is no story to tell about a picture, maybe because pictures should tell stories themselves.

I have come up with my new photography motto or saying: “I don’t take pictures. I just try to capture the past”

From the Attic: Vineyard in Maastricht

konrad — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:38:23 +0000

Who would expect to find vineyards in Maastricht? For those of you who don’t know where Maastricht is: it is in the south of the Netherlands. So what’s so amazing about vineyards in Maastricht? Well, that they exist at all here! It’s neither the warmest place in Europe nor with lots of sun. I actually had an opportunity to try white wine from Maastricht (I got a bottle for my birthday in April for which I’m truly thankful) and I have one advice for those of you who would like to try it: avoid it!

Now about the picture. I dug out few old pictures taken still with my old SLR (yes, there is no “D” in front of it so it’s not a Digital one) – Minolta 505si – old, good traditional 35mm film camera. There will be posts called “From the Attic”, which means that these will be some old pictures, most of them taken with this old camera.