How to shoot better pictures - Film Camera Style Tip

I was looking over some of my older photography gear few weeks ago and obviously I ran across my old film cameras and old memory cards from my first digital cameras. I started to recall the times of film photography and compare it with the experience of the digital world.

It took me awhile (being so deep in digital cameras nowadays) to realize that film cameras limited me by certain number of pictures a photographic film roll could contain (not like digital cameras, which can take from few hundred to few thousand RAW pictures, depending on the capacity of a memory card). The limitation of a number of ‘exposures’ (in photographic jargon of course) in film cameras forced me to spend some time and think about a composition of a picture, how to frame a subject, inspect closely foreground, background, double check the lighting and any other details that could improve a picture so that no film and frames would be wasted. This limitation of a film camera was (and for someone who uses a film camera still is) a very important step in the learning process of the art of photography and I personally believe that it still should be a part of the learning process of photography.

I think that digital cameras with their huge memory cards give us the freedom that actually does more harm than good for those who want to learn photography – we don’t take that extra time and effort on checking composition of a picture like in a film camera because we know that we can re-take a picture countless number of time and delete easily ‘bad’ pictures without any financial costs (as it wasn’t the case in the photographic film roll era).

I think I have found a solution for those who own only digital cameras and who want to learn composition in a way it was done before. The solution is quite simple: next time you will go for a photo walk, do an assignment for yourself or just take pictures, leave your 8 or 16 GB memory card at home and take with you only one memory card of 1GB or even less (the less capacity, the better; I just checked that 1GB for shooting 12.1 MP RAW will give you about 68 exposures). Depending if you shoot RAW or JPEG and how many megapixels your camera has, you should find a memory card that enables you to take not more than 30 exposures. And remember to leave all other memory cards at home! This way you will limit your gear but you will definitely expand your knowledge and experience in composition!

I strongly encourage you to try it out few times and I guarantee that you will see improvement in your photography soon.

Happy Shooting!!!

Article Picture: I took it in the evening with my Nikkor 35mm f1.8 lens in Jubel Park in Brussels (Bruxelles), Belgium. Jubel Park in a part of Parc du Cinquantenaire (click to see Google Maps). EXIF info: Nikon D90, Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec., f/1.8, ISO: 200.

Exposure Is NOT Shutter Speed!

I met a group of young photographers in Brussels (Belgium) few days ago. I overheard them discussing various aspects of photography so I joined them of course. At some point, they got to the point of talking about exposure as if they were talking about shutter speed (for example that the exposure was 1/60 sec.). To be honest, I was confused at first and I started to question my knowledge on the differences between exposure and shutter speed. Thankfully, it didn't take me long to do a quick and quiet analysis in my head and to assure myself that I was right in the first place:

Exposure is NOT the same as shutter speed!

I won't go in detail but I will just give a quick summary to those of you who are still confused a little: exposure is the total amount of light that passes on a film (or a digital sensor). That total amount of light depends on the aperture and on the shutter speed.

Note: Some photographers use 'exposure time' as a 'shutter speed'. Although this is correct (shutter speed defines for how long a film or a sensor are exposed, therefore 'exposure time'), I personally don't use 'exposure time' because it's very much different from 'exposure' itself but can create much confusion.

Article Picture: This is another picture taken at the Cemetery de Molenbeek in Brussels (Bruxelles), Belgium (see google map). Previous one was posted with THIS article. I saw this statue while walking around the cemetery and I was amazed with it's look. EXIF: Nikon D90, Shutter Speed: 1/1600 sec., f/1.8, Aperture Priority, ISO: 200, EV Bias: +0.7

Indoor and Outdoor Sports Photography Tips

I have drafted a list of indoor sports photography tips few days ago for Photography101 , which is hosted by Scott Wittenburg. After reading them over and over again, I realized that many of these tips apply to outdoor sports photography as well. I believe they are crucial for every sports photographer, an amateur and especially a pro. However, remember that these tips will vary depending on sports and situations and some might be more important in certain situations than other. As Scott Bourne keeps saying: "Photography has always been about compromise." Remember it when shooting sports. Before providing you with indoor and outdoor sports photography tips, I have identified so far the following variables, which might make some of these tips more or less important:

- lighting conditions (how much there is natural and directional light from sun and how much equally distributed artificial light); - your position in relation to the subject(s); - type of sports; - your preference on the subject and the focus of photography.

Indoor and Outdoor Sports Photography Tips:

- Burst Mode - because there are lots of fast movements and action in sports, it's good sometimes to shoot in the burst mode to capture the most interesting and thrilling moments. In order to increase the rate of frames per second (FPS), do the following: shoot in JPG, turn off VR (Nikon) or IS (Canon); turn off in-camera noise-reduction; get a fast memory-card; having a battery-grip attached to your camera with AA batteries also increases FPS (but you need to change settings in your camera, the best is to refer to the camera manual);

- Focusing - set up focusing mode to continuous (Nikon) or AI Servo (Canon); also activate to automatic all the focusing points in the camera and subject-tracking if available. Extra tip: make sure you're in the AutoFocus Mode;

- ISO - set up ISO to Auto (so the camera can determine the best ISO based on your shutter speed and aperture, especially if you shoot in one of those priority modes). Remember that in poor lighting situations, your camera will likely use higher ISO. ISO above 800 tend to have higher noise and visible noise than ISO below 800. If you want to keep noise minimum, you can also specify the ISO range your camera will use in the Auto ISO mode.

- Shutter Speed - fast shutter speed is essential when shooting indoor or outdoor sports in order to freeze action. To freeze action and motion, shoot in Shutter Priority Mode and set it up to 1/1000sec. However, don't be afraid to play with it as it might depend on sports you shoot and especially when you want to achieve the optimal results for combining shutter speed, ISO and aperture according to your needs;

- Perspective - get low on you knees to get more interesting and unique perspective of your photography. If possible, lay even on your stomach. Remember that this tip might not apply to some sports and it also depends when you want to have a subject and focus in your photos.

- Use Fast Lens - a fast lens is crucial, especially in poor indoor lighting situations and when you want to freeze motion with high shutter speed, while avoiding high and noisy ISO. F/4 or lower f (higher aperture) is recommended;

- Long Focal Length Lens - long focal length lens is also crucial because it allows you to nicely zoom to a subject and 'get closer' to it so to speak. It depends on the type of sports you shoot and your location on the field but I would say that -200mm- lens is a minimum; -

Both Eyes Open - when shooting and looking through the viewfinder, keep your other eye open (so keep both eyes open). This way you don't limit your view-angle to what happens in the viewfinder and you also see what happens around and where the action is as sometimes fights break somewhere in the field, coaches go crazy, etc. and it's a pity to miss such great and unique shots;

- Expect Unexpected - this actually applies to many things: your main camera or lens breaks, your run out of space on a memory card or it starts raining during an outdoor sports game. Always have a backup, especially when you're shooting for a customer;

- Protect Your Gear - be careful with your gear when it comes to weather and other circumstances - there is lots of action during games: players concentrate on the game and fans drink beer and alcohol. Neither of these people worry about your expensive camera and gear when they bump into you or hit your gear - be extra careful with it and position yourself in a spot that looks the safest for you. Also watch for your gear or ask a friend / an assistant to come with you to watch it for you because pickpockets love crowded places.

- Monopod - not mandatory but often useful because holding a camera and pointing it towards the field during the whole game can make your arm feel really tired. However, if you don't point the camera towards the field all the time, you might miss some very good and interesting shots. Therefore, putting a camera on a monopod allows you to point the camera towards the field all the time and manipulate camera, move it, etc very easily because monopods are much better than tripods when shooting sports when it comes to portability and maneuverability. In addition, there is not always space to set up the legs of the tripod, people are walking around and can bump into your tripod with a camera on it and believe me: you don't want to be in a situation where camera hits the floor. If you don't have a monopod and you can't afford to buy one, you can use your tripod but don't set-up the legs. Extra tip: having a camera on a monopod, instead of holding it, also speeds up focusing.

Feel free to leave any additional tips in the comments below.

Article Picture: The picture you see above was taken in Maastricht, the Netherlands during the Dutch National Sport Week on 18 April 2009. EXIF Info: Nikon D90, Shutter Speed: 1/2000 sec., F/8, ISO 360, Focal Length: 105 mm

Aperture 3 Finally usable: Aperture 3.0.2 Update

You might recall that I mentioned in my previous blog article I would be moving away from Aperture 3 and I promised to tell you why. Well, things have changed in the past week and they've changed quite dramatically, but in a good sense. Apple released update to Aperture 3 with the number 3.0.2 on 25 March 2010. Although, this update number looks insignificant, it includes many crucial updates and fixes (at least for the most part) what was bothering me the most: extremely low performance of Aperture 3. The detailed description of the fixes in Aperture 3.0.2 update are provided on Apple's website here.

I spent few hours yesterday testing Aperture 3.0.2 and I have to say I was positively surprised. This update makes Aperture 3 finally usable or as Scott Bourne from PhotoFocus.com wrote: "Aperture 3.0.2 “ FINALLY Finally Ready For Prime Time". It's true (and many photographers confirm that) that Apple's first public major releases (like Aperture 3.0) are in fact full of glitches and bugs. Therefore, they should be seen by the end users as 'unofficial' public betas and not final products. Only after few updates (just like in case of Aperture 3), these products become usable. I myself didn't use Aperture 3 and I waited for the first update of 3.0.1 but even then, the product was not operational, unusable and buggy. I'm a little surprised and even disappointed that Apple acts the way it does with its products towards the customers. Maybe they will learn the lesson, especially after such a sound criticism about buggy Aperture 3. Sometimes it's good to learn from competitors Apple!

Having said that, I will probably stay with Aperture 3 (well, actually Aperture 3.0.2) as it seems to work fine (more or less at least). I've tested about 75%-80% of the features and performance of its 3.0.2 update and it works much MUCH better than the previous version.

Article Picture: Some of you might be familiar with it: it's the Atomium in Brussels (Bruxelles), Belgium (see map) or at least a part of it.

Playground From Hell

Every kid has nightmares once in awhile. I remember when I was a kid, I had quite few nightmares and bad dreams and oh boy... how scared I was of those monsters hiding under my bed and in my closet. But I remember one particular nightmare quite vividly: a scary, dark and empty playground with mysterious noises coming out of nowhere.

When I was in Maastricht (the Netherlands) in January 2010, I saw this playground surrounded by white snow and I couldn't stop thinking about my nightmare from childhood. I grabbed my Nikon D90 without any hesitation and just when I was about to take a picture I realized that I should make a picture (besides, there was something missing - dramatic lighting). I pull out my SB-900 speedlight and asked a friend to hold it up at about 75-80 degrees between me and the object and point it directly at it. I also underexposed the picture in the camera in order to achieve more dramatic lighting and contrast. Few post-processing tweaks here and there and voilà! - Playground from hell - almost the same as in my childhood dreams (still brings chills when I look at it).

When dark clouds take over the sky

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'.