Back from holidays, back to work

It's been a while I posted something on the blog since last time and I thought I would just give you a quick update what was and what will be going on in my photography life. Let's start with the past events then, shall we? :) I spent 2 weeks in Poland in August visiting my family and friends. Besides taking some snapshots at the countryside and while traveling a bit around, I also had a photo shoot at the Polish seaside. The pictures from this shoot are ready to be published but I think I'll put the online next week or so.

Why so late? Well, I've been quite busy recently and I'm actually going to be pretty busy with various photography assignments for at least next couple of weeks. Having said that, let me tell you what I'll be doing this weekend: I was asked by the organizers of Antwerp Diamond Triathlon 2010 (www.adt2010.be) to be an official photographer for the event. The triathlon will take place on Sunday 12 September 2010 and will start at 14:00, so come over if you're around!

How to Increase the Frame Rate in Burst & Continuous Modes

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.

Garage's Bricked Wall as a Background

I moved to a new apartment with a garage last month. I think the very first thing that crossed my mind was: "that could be an interesting place to take portraits". The old bricked wall in the garage caught my attention immediately and I thought it could be a very interesting background for pictures, especially because of the pattern they give. I took few test shots in the garage after a photo shoot last time. The background made out of bricks looks as I thought - pretty good. I came up with few new ideas for portrait photography and lighting setups for them while doing the test shots and I hope I'll have an opportunity to take few more test shots soon again.

Goodbye Aperture 3, Welcome Lightroom 3.

It's official: I've switched over to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3. I know that some of you followed previously my experience with testing Apple's Aperture 3 when it came out. Unfortunately, the processing speed of RAW files in Aperture 3 became simply unacceptable for me - waiting for 4 minutes for a program to process some adjustments within an image can be painful and a big time-waster as you can imagine.

I gave a try to Lightroom 3 a week ago and I edited the latest photo shoot with it. I have to admit that I'm very happy with Lightroom 3 - it's fast, intuitive and it didn't take me as long as I thought it would to learn it. Therefore, I advice to anyone having problems with Apple Aperture 3 to at least try Adobe Lightroom 3 (there is a 30-day free fully functional trial version) - you might be as positively surprised as I was.

Finding the balance between the theory and practice.

Many aspiring photographers try to find their ways not only on how to enter the photography market, but also on how to effectively and efficiently learn the art of photography. Some of these people find themselves in a rather deadlock - they have the basic knowledge but they can't progress anywhere from there. Such situations quite often occur when we start by reading lots of articles about photography and learning the theory but we forgot the most important thing about photography: it's about taking pictures!

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I believe that only taking pictures in order to learn photography is not enough. The same apply when talking about theory - let's face it, you can't be a photographer without taking pictures. But both theory and practice are required to be a photographer, add passion and creativity and you won't only be a photographer but you will have pretty good chances in becoming a good photographer.

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So where should be the balance between the theory and practice? In general, I think there is no definite answer to this question. However, I would say that every person who wants to do photography either as a hobby or make living out of it, needs to know at least the minimum of theoretical knowledge. I believe that practice and practical knowledge without the theoretical knowledge can limit an aspiring photographer because for me theory helps you in understanding how various things work, what can be different connections and relations between settings, etc. Such knowledge helps in boosting creativity for sure.

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Therefore, I think that everyone should find his and her own balance between the theory: don't let lack of theory limit your photography and don't let practice forget about the theory.

Article Pictures: Marika is a young and aspiring model from Poland. We meet in July for a quick and spontaneous photo shoot in Brussels, Belgium. I have to say that working with her is pure pleasure. We had lots of laugh and fun while shooting.

Photo Location Hunting around Brussels Airport

I went to the area near Brussels Airport with my friend Lourdes (her photo website) in May 2010 to hunt for interesting locations for the upcoming photo shoots and assignments. We found some really interesting spots for portraits and creative pictures in the area of Brussels Airport. I ended up taking few portrait test shots with Nikon SB-900 speedlight but I have to admit I was much more fascinated by the airplanes.

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The area near Brussels Airport is easily accessible. They are many roads, bike roads, fields, etc. and the place is very interesting for some creative shoots. But my attention quickly turned over to the airplanes. I was amazed how low they get when approaching the airport and I couldn't stop taking the pictures. The feeling of a low-flying airplane together with the enormously loud sound of the engines was simply AMAZING! I can't wait to go there again!

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Thinking outside the box in photography

Being a photographer is not only about knowing the rules of photography and applying them. It's also about being able to break them and to think outside the box. I think that the latter is particularly important for those who try or want to be creative - without the ability of thinking outside the box will make it very hard to stand out in the crowd!

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So what does thinking outside the box mean for me as a photographer? Ohh it can mean so many different things. I think it comes all together to a combination of various things: the ability to break the rules of photography, creativity and the potential to see the world around in a unique way.

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How can you learn to think outside the box? Well, I really can't give a definite answer to that. I can definitely tell you that you don't have to be born with it (although it can be helpful to a certain extent) but you can learn it as well. i can tell you how I try to think outside the box: I look around at the world around me from different angles and various perspectives. I keep trying to see it in a way others don't. It sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. It's important to train yourself, your brain and your eyes and not to give up. The more you try to see the world around you from different perspectives, the easier it becomes.

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Article Pictures: I visited my friend Ada in Den Haag, the Netherlands in June 2010. I think the pictures correspond pretty well to how you can think outside the box in photography.

Announcing Brussels Photo Walk #3

Just a quick announcement this time: next Brussels Photo Walk #3 will take place this Sunday (27 June 2010) at 14:00. We'll meet at the Brussels Central Station in front of the international ticket desk (left to the normal ticket desks).

The 3rd Brussels Photo Walk will be as spontaneous and unplanned as the 2nd one (which was a really nice one) - we will meet and keep on deciding where to go as we'll progress. I think the photo walk will take between 2-3 hrs but there is nothing fixed. The more spontaneous, the more fun! Hope to see you there!

Where to find us and how to know when we meet? We have two groups: one on Flickr (click here) and one on Facebook (click here) . Feel free to join these groups to get announcements when & where we meet next time.

Brussels Photo Walk #2

You might have already heard that I decided at the beginning of this year to organize Brussels Photo Walks. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do them on a regularly but starting from May 2010, Brussels Photo Walks will be on regular basis: once a month! I already have few ideas to make these events even more exciting, interesting and even more social but these will be implemented gradually and kept as a surprise until revealed to the public :) . As some of you know might not be familiar with a concept of city photowalking , here is a short summary of Brussels Photo Walks.

The idea: Photowalking is quite straightforward: you grab a camera and walk around taking pictures of things you see and you find interesting to take pictures of. However, it is much more interesting and even educational when you do it in a group. Anyone interested in photography comes to photo walks: amateurs, people just starting with photography, professionals and semi-professionals. Thanks such diversity of the participants, there is a great potential of not only exchanging views and opinions about photography but also of learning from each other!

Who can come to Brussels Photo Walks? Anyone interested in photography, talking about it, taking pictures and learning from each other! Even if you just start your adventure with photography and you have a point-and-shoot camera, you're more than welcomed to come. Remember: equipment doesn't play a role at all! And if you just know how to turn your camera on and off, come to a photo walk and we will be more than happy to teach you more about photography and assist with any problems and questions you might have! Brussels Photo Walks are about sharing experiences, knowledge and passion to photography while having lots of fun.

Where to find us and how to know when we meet? We have two groups: one on Flickr (click here) and one on Facebook (click here) . Feel free to join these groups to get announcements when & where we meet next time.

Assisting and Behind the Scenes with Bert Stephani

Bert Stephani has posted recently a blog article "Be an Assistant". I had a great pleasure to be his assistant in his recent Diva Shoot, where he invited a bunch of women to his studio (called 'The Barn), and he shot portraits in two different sets. We met a week before the shoot to prepare the sets, which was also lots of fun. Although my assisting during the shoot was mainly about taking behind the scenes pictures, I have to say that even during such assisting, I learned a lot.

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However, assisting is so much more than learning how to take pictures. While you learn, you also observe things that you might have already knew before, which is also a great thing to remember these for the future. Basically, the things you knew before get better embedded in your memory and the likelihood that you will forget them in your next photo shoot gets much smaller.

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But assisting is so much more than that. You also learn how to talk to and approach a client during a photo shoot (especially because every client is different) and you can learn much more than the photo shoot while talking with a photographer after a shoot. Although I was just shooting behind the scenes pictures and I helped Bert with preparing the sets a week before, I learned a lot! Make sure to check Bert's website and portfolio at http://bertstephani.com.

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