Time for your close up.

I love close up photography; it’s my fall back when I have nothing else to shoot as nearly every thing looks different when shot really close up. Also you can do it nearly any where and get fantastic results; the shots used here were taken just feet from my back door and in the rain. But what puts most people off is the thought that you need loads of expensive equipment and specialist knowledge, so here are a couple of shots and a breakdown of what was done.

The kit. read more

The Tripod

My next item of must have kit is a tripod. Tripods are used to prevent camera movement and are necessary when using slow-speed exposures, or when telephoto lenses are used, as any camera movement while the shutter is open will produce a blurred image. In the same vein, they reduce camera shake, and thus are instrumental in achieving maximum sharpness.

The photo demonstrates the difference a tripod can make to a shot, the top shot shows how a slow shutter speed was used to blur the movement in the water, while in the bottom shot the best hand held speed was used to prevent camera shake, but this also froze the water in mid flow. read more

Polarizing filter

This item of kit is mainly for the SLR user but some types of polarizing filter can but fitted to compact cameras.

A polarizing filter can be used both in colour and black and white photography. They work by controlling the amount of light reaching the lens, or a least the direction that the light is traveling in, as by cutting out some reflected light the filter does some amazing things like; darkening the sky, removing reflections from water, and making foliage more colourful, colour saturation overall is also significantly enhanced. read more

My must have kit!

Following on from the last post, what are the must have items of camera equipment?
Well as everybody wants different things from their camera, their needs for extra equipment will differ, so I will run through some suggested pieces of kit, starting with what I think is a must have item.

The camera bag

The first thing I would buy is a decent camera case, your camera will do you no good at home or if it is out with you and broken, so a good camera bag will protect it when ever the camera is not in your hands.
Cases fall into two types, the first just holds the camera and maybe some small accessories, the second will hold the camera and, depending on its size, any extra equipment you may have. The first type of bag will suit most people’s needs as it is small and easy to carry, so it won’t be left at home and you will get more use out of your camera. I have one of these for my compact camera, it’s made by Lowepro and it fits just the camera, a spare memory card and a spare battery. For my SLR I have a similar case made by Camera Care Systems, this one holds the camera and a lens along with a spare lens, spare SD memory card and battery. When choosing this type of bag don’t be tempted to make it too big as you will only fill it with stuff and then not want to carry it around. read more

A bit of a different lesson this one, not about taking pictures but how to acquire the equipment to allow you to do so. I spent over 4 years selling camera equipment and have also spent nearly 20 years buying it, so here are my hints and tips.

Research, research, research. What ever you are after, be it a £1000 camera or a £5 filter, check it will meet your needs, it might be the best in its class, but if it does not do what you need it to you have wasted your money. The first thing I do is type the items name into Google and see if it has any reviews done by real people in forums or on hobby sites. Then I check for the best price and if I don’t known the company that’s offering the best price I check them as well.
Let’s look at buying the main item, the camera. For most people this is a large expenditure on something that is really not vital to life, regardless of the type or the cost it is normally a big event for your pocket, so every effort to save funds and get the most out of the experience is valid. read more

Then next compositional trick, if your audience is finding the rule of thirds too subtle, is using converging line. This is the photographer’s way of pointing to the important part, and basically saying

“This is the bit I want you to look at, stupid!”

This works very well on landscapes giving very strong images which end up with a very graphic feel. The converging lines can be made up of anything from paths to roads or lakesides to streams, even man made structures like the lock gate in this picture ( a more subtle trick in this shot is the fact that the girl is looking at the point of interest, most people will look at what she is looking at). read more

Over the past few lessons we have looked at the technical aspects of the camera, now we get to the more interesting part, taking pictures. The first bit to cover is composition; this is how you arrange the subject in the frame and the reason why you need to do that.

Your eye is a fantastic optical device, far better than any lens; it’s backed up by your brain, the most powerful computer on the planet. Working in combination they provide a unique window on the world, but a window that is molded by your interest in the subject in view. On the other hand your camera sees the scenes as light bouncing off objects, it gives no priority to any particular item in view, which means that the photograph has an objectivity all of its own. This is why when you see your photos they don’t match your memory of the event and why what looked like a great photo of your partner, now looks like there’s a tree growing out of their head. read more

The last part of the camera we need to cover is the bit that captures the image, be it film or the CCD. As we have seen in the past lesson the shutter and the aperture control the amount of light let in to the camera to create the correct exposure, but there is a third variable, the sensitivity of the film or CCD.

In the early days of photography the image collector (Glass slide or tin plate, coated with light sensitive chemical) was not very sensitive and exposures were measured in minutes. These long exposures lead to the staged formal portraits of the time as the people had to stand very still for a long amount of time. read more

The Aperture and the Shutter are the yin and yang of photography, these 2 regulate the exposure and work together to affect the total image, and understanding their effect will take you along way down the road of mastering photography.

Aperture, if you look back to lesson one this is the opening that the light come through. On a camera it is normally a set of metal leaves that close in from the out side to leave a small round hole in the centre of the field of view. The wider the hole the more light can get in, if you ever hear of someone shooting wide open, this means that the aperture was at its widest. The wider the aperture the lower the number, so 1.8 is wider than 4.5, these numbers can also be seen on the lens, giving an indication of its speed, a low aperture lens is a faster one, due to the fact that wide open it lets in more light making for a quicker exposure. Due to technical restrictions, the faster lenses cost more to make, so a low aperture on a lens is also an indication of quality. read more

We have looked at the basics behind photography and touched on the different types of camera, now to start to put the bits together.
I’m starting with exposure as it gives you a better idea of what is going on both physically and mentally in your camera.
Exposure is the term for the amount of light that hits the image collector, be it film or a CCD, a correct exposure means that the image is just the right brightness. Most cameras have an auto function on them that will set up the shutter speed and aperture to get a perfect exposure every time, well nearly every time. read more