Posts Tagged ‘digital camera’
How to shoot better photos at night.
Try these helpful tricks for shooting steady images in low light.
If you are taking a lot of photographs, it’s a great idea to carry your point and shoot camera around with you as much as you can. Naturally, a point and shoot is a bit limited as far as the quality of images it may shoot. This is especially the case at night. But don’t worry – we have some great tips to improve your shooting photos at nighttime:
First, consider using a shutter speed that is longer. A lot of people never bother to explore the many setting adjustments you can make on a pocket camera. You certainly have the ability to lengthen your exposures on most cameras. Even if your point and shoot doesn’t have a shutter speed option, you probably can switch to a night scenes setting. This will let you set shutter speeds for longer than usual. On a number of cameras, you can change the night scenes function to open the shutter as long as 30 seconds!
Second, it is recommended to try to take a few takes of your photo with various shutter speeds. If you’re shooting at night, there will be little light, but your camera will adjust its aperture to bring in more light and you also may change your shutter speed. With these two functions working in harmony, you should be able to open your shutter for up to 20 seconds before the picture totally degrades. You’ll need to prop the camera against your body and hold it very steady of course.
Third, it is crucial when you are shooting at night to find a very sturdy surface on which you can brace your camera. Probably you are not going to be lugging a tripod in your back pocket, but that is okay. You can usually find something to brace your camera – newspaper box, a lamp post, a statue and so on. If your shot is a second or less, you may be able to steady it against your body, but much longer than that and you’ll have blurring.
Fourth, when you are using longer shutter speeds, it is advisable to breathe and squeeze very easily. You should not take your finger off the button once you open the shutter or you’ll shake it. Also, try to exhale when you shoot, as this results in less shaking.
What’s the difference between a fast lens and a regular lens?
A fast lens is one that lets in more light, so you’re able to use faster shutter speeds in low light.
If you do any photography, you are occasionally going to hear that you need to have ‘a fast lens.’ That sounds great. Fast is good, right? But what does it really mean? Well, the lens speed essentially is how wide the maximum aperture of that lens is. The greater that max aperture, the faster your lens is going to be.
When we speak about a lens, we very often will describe it by focal length; it might be a lens that is 50mm or 200 mm. We also will mention its max aperture. It will normally be a number that has an ‘f’ just before it. Some examples will be f/2.0 or f/5.6. The lesser that number is the larger your max aperture will be. Make sure you bear in mind that the aperture is how big the hole is in the lens that allows light inside once you press the shutter button. The larger that aperture, more light is allowed into the lens.
A lens with a bigger max aperture is called ‘fast’ since it lets in a great amount of light. Therefore you can use shutter speeds that are faster even in dim situations. The ability to shoot a photo in lower light conditions without a flash is a great advantage in a lot of situations. A fast lens really shines in a low light area. For instance, you might be in an art museum where there isn’t a lot of natural light, but flashes are not allowed. This will allow you to get better shots
As a rule, a lens is ‘fast’ if the max aperture is f/4 or greater. A fast lens may be a great thing, but they are almost always more costly.
One more big thing to remember is that the larger aperture of a fast lens is going to have a big effect on the depth of field in the images. Bigger apertures will give you a depth of field that is shallower. This is great if you are wanting to have the object of your photo stand out the most from the background.
Overall, a ‘fast lens’ is usually a desirable thing to have on your SLR camera. However the prices of the faster lenses may be a deciding factor for many people.
Taking Portrait Photos
Taking portraits is one thing, taking great portraits is another thing. These top 5 tips for taking portrait photos will help you take the best possible portrait photos without having to be a professional photographer.
1. Location There are two important elements for portrait photography. The First is to learn to control your background and where the photo is being taken. Make sure you keep focused on the subject and not other distracting elements that could be in the background.
The best portraits use a gray seamless background or another monochromatic background. You don’t need to build any special rooms to control your background. Allot cheaper version of building a room with these backgrounds is a portable backdrops in which you can buy for cheap or build for less.
The second element is controlling the lighting in your portrait studio. Using lights on stands or using lights hung from the ceiling you can pick the angle the light strikes the subject. You can use diffusion equipment including umbrellas to take the harsh shadows cast on your subject. There are suprisinly allot of portable lighting kits that arn’t that expensive, these normally come with a unbella,couple of lights and flash kits. Make sure you always use a tripod when taking these types of photos.
2. Location Highjacking if your space is limited and you don’t have enough room to have neutral background then you need to “borrow” a location. There’s all kinds of vast open spaces where light can pour into from huge skylights found at places like museums or universities. Using a 200mm lens with an f/2.8 it will put your background out of focus
3. Must have Controlled Lighting Allot of great protrait photos have been taken over the years and the best way to shoot is with a soft light and 100% without flash. Find yourself a north facing window or a softbox. If you decide to use a shadow box you will have no shadows at all.
Another great time to take protrait photos is when the sky is overcast and there is a blanket of clouds. If it’s sunny out use an electronic flash, which will fill in the shadows under the eyes, or use a reflector.
4. Lens selection Another tip when taking portrait photos is to deemphasize the nose. To do this stand back 10’ to 15’ away from your subject so that the nose isn’t closer to the rest of the subject’s face. A portrait lens works best between 90 and 135 millimeters.
5. Framing the Subject The technique of framing draws your attention to one element of the image by framing it using another element of the image. This technique will bring allot more attention to your person being photographed and will draw the eyes in. There are some excellent examples of framing available online that can help you get a better idea of how framing can work to your benefit.
But before that it’s more important to know how your camera work, really explore the options you have with your camera. Of course the better you know and understand what your camera can do the better the photo. Taking quality portrait photos isn’t as difficult as one might think. Of course these are just 5 of many tips when taking photos and portrait photo’s, so if this doesn’t fulfill all your questions continue asking.
Make sure you get a good camera before you go and try and take good photos. If your interested in looking at the top 5 digital cameras for 2011 or would like to see the Best Digital Camera Reviews then make sure you take the time to read through them carfully. See other tips like these at our blog, an example would be DSLR what is it
Pink Digital Cameras: Find The Right Solution
A pink digital camera is among the hottest items in the marketplace. Pink is a bold color also it makes a breathtaking fashion statement.
Essentially you will be able to find any kind of digital camera you desire in the color pink. This also includes all of the latest versions which have a lot of pixels, auto focus, red eye removal and all of the other advanced features that you can easily expect from a trendy digital camera.
Pink digital camera models certainly will not be highly popular with most boys, but for ladies they make fantastic gift ideas.
You will be happy to find out that the price is more or less identical for both standard as well as pink digital cameras.
Pink digital camera models are certainly one very popular at this moment, especially with women clients.
Say you’ve been trying to think of the best gift for a daughter, lover, niece, sister, or friend. A pink digicam just might be the most suitable gift item they get for the next holiday or birthday party.
With so many to choose from, deciding on a pink digital camera isn’t any easier than buying a plain silver or black digital camera.
Pink digital camera models are very in demand particularly by the female customers, since pink is the favorite colour of the majority of females and in some cases a few boys.
A lot of your popular brands are currently for sale in any camera retail store and outlet. Lots of different brand names, designs, types, shades of pink and spending budget are available suitable for you.
A cheap pink digital camera costs about $80 – $90, but will take only mediocre pictures. Many people will not care. They like to just take shots for fun. But, if quality matters, or maybe you want to capture essential pictures like of a newborn or maybe graduation, in that case a digital camera of higher quality will make a difference. The majority of the pink digital camera models tend to be “point and shot” which means you don’t have to know anything about sophisticated settings to utilize them. As for quality, the higher the mega-pixels, the higher quality the images. If a costly digital camera has only 8 or less mega pixels, it is a truly bad offer. Entry level cameras priced at around $90 can have around 8 to 10 mega pixels.
Buying a pink camera might sound like a great idea these days, but what if you get sick of it a few years? Particularly if you’re making a larger expense, you might like to opt for only accesorizing the digital camera in pink. You could buy a pink digital camera case to keep your camera. Or you, could purchase a pink digital camera strap to show you are love for everything pink. And, the good thing? You’re not stuck with pink. You can switch things out in case you get sick of the colour pink.
Top 10 Photo Taking Tips while Taking Photos or Fireworks
Top ten tips for Photographing Fireworks
While at the Fireworks it’s allot of fun and you think your taking all these amazing photos, but when you get home you become shocked to find out that they didn’t come out well. Many photographers aren’t even brave enough to take night photographs. But if your out at night you need to take the opporunity with both hands and give it a go. Here are some tips on how to take photos of fireworks.
Tip #1 This first tip isn’t for directly targeting the fireworks but you will get some amazing shots if you aim for a window, the water or someones glasses, for a reflection and this will give a great shot and you will really impress yourself. Get yourself as close to the reflective surface angle as you can to get the maximum reflection.
Tip #2 Instead of shooting the fireworks consider shooing pictures of people watching the firework display. You get the glow of the color on faces and the background has tiny fireworks way up there. It creates excellent mood photos.
Tip #3 When taking photos at the fireworks you need to make sure you have your iso level lowered but not to the lowest level. Choose as high an ISO as you can to get the light bursts brighter on the fireworks. You will have to experiment with this a little as every camera is different.
Tip #4 Use a longer exposure so that you can enjoy the beauty of the fireworks exploding. A longer exposure will capture the firework’s streak and the colorful explosions.
Tip #5 If your interested in taking a photo with more than one explosion then you will need to bring a piece of black paper to block some of the light coming into your camera lens. By doing this you will not destory your photo with to much light.
Tip #6 Even when you are shooting beautiful fireworks you still need to keep your composition in mind. Great looking photos have something in the background, in the mid ground, and the foreground. So when you are taking your firework shots keep this in mind.
Tip #7 Many people have problems understanding ISO and how it pertains to taking photographs of fireworks. The answer is there is no right answer, because ISO is dependent on many conditions, but these settings should reward you with a great shot almost every time. ISO 200, 15-second shutter speed, and f/16. If you use these settings on a night that’s fairly dark during a fireworks display that’s average speed. It’s important to always have something in the forground to show depth.
Tip #8 If you decide you don’t want anything in your foreground, you can choose to use a really low aperture value so that you get the maximum amount of light and increase the brightness of the bursts of fireworks. Because the fireworks are so far away your depth of field is infinite so the aperture isn’t really important except for your picture’s sharpness.
Tip #9 Always make sure your down wind of the photo, otherwise the haze will ruin everything.
Tip #10 Finally, have some fun. Relax, experiment, and remember there’s always another fireworks display. Fine-tune your photography skills and before long you’ll be taking great fireworks pictures.
Make sure you have the best digital camera for taking photos of the fireworks and everything else. If your planning on traveling it’s important that you have a camera that can be taken into any situation and this mean it needs to be waterproof,dustproof,freezeproof and if you want to get a camera like this, visiit our Waterproof Digital Camera Reviews
