Digital photography has made photography become easier, affordable and certainly more enjoyable. Just look at a wedding dinner, more and more participants are carrying their own digital camera and some of them even have their own DSLR camera.
If you are just started with digital photography, it is good that you can look into the 5 quick tips below to help you get acquainted with this hobby ASAP. :-)
1. What amazes me with digital photography is the LCD screen. Now, you can just look at the screen, adjust your frame and snap the picture. Then, you can look at the picture you have taken and decide to keep it or not. You can never do that with film camera. You will never know whether you have taken a good picture until the picture is developed.
Since the LCD is one of the important components of the digital camera, it is only wise to protect it as best as you can. Remember, fixing a spoiled LCD screen can be costly and guarantee period can be short term too.
2. Another important components of a digital camera will be the flash. Without it, your pictures will turn out dark. However you need to know that most flash can only light up your subject within 15-20 feet. So, use that as your reference and move in or out to your subject so that it can be properly lit.
3. Most digital cameras nowadays come with image stabilizer technology and it is good that you can factor that in when you are buying your digital camera. Just to comfort you, this stability technology will not cost much extra. Imagine the clear and stable pictures you can take with this technology and you will know that it is worth the money to invest in this feature.
4. A word of reminder for the compact digital camera users who are reading this, you might experience a short lag time when you press the shutter button and this can make your picture turn out to be blurry.
To avoid that, you can half press the shutter button so that your camera can have time to focus on your subject and you can often see a rectangle appear on the LCD screen when you half press the button. After that, you can fully press the button take the pictures.
5. Now, let's imagine that you are taking pictures outdoor and it is sunny and bright. The digital photography tip for you here is to change your white balance setting to cloudy. This will then add certain degree of red and yellow filter to the camera and help you to get better pictures.
So, that is all for now and I am looking forward to share more digital photography tips with you in the coming post. :-)
Have fun photographing,
Michael Wong. :-)
P.S. Look here for affordable and easy to use DSLR camera. You can enjoy great value and free shipping to your doorstep...
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tips On Controlling Your Exposure
Since you are into photography, you ought to know how important exposure is to your pictures. What is exposure then?
Exposure is simply the total amount of light that falls on the image sensor (or film in film camera) when you are taking a picture. There are 2 ways for you to get the right exposure for your picture.
1. Set your digital camera to auto and let it works its magic or
2. You manually control the aperture or f-stop (to control the brightness) and shutter speed (to control the duration of light entering the camera link shutter speed)
Another thing you need to know about exposure in photography is that it is determined by the sensitivity of the medium you use and this sensitivity is measured by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Surely you can still remember the different film you bought for different occasion during film photography time and that different speed of film is the ISO for film photography. Since we are in digital photography, we can now select the ISO from the camera with ease. Thank you technology. :-)
Do remember that aperture and shutter speed work hand in hand to give you the right exposure to your picture. Imagine that you are taking a picture during a sunny day when light is not an issue. So, the picture you get by having a normal aperture and shutter speed will be similar to the picture you get when you set your camera to the auto mode.
Then, what if you are taking picture in a dim environment? If you continue with the auto mode, you might underexpose your picture. That is the time you need to adjust aperture to make it bigger (smaller f-stop) so that more light can go into the camera. Remember that shutter speed and aperture work together? In this case, you will want to slow down the shutter speed to have more light going into the camera too.
One word of caution is that when you slow down the shutter speed, your camera is more sensitive to movement. A gentle handshake can result in a blurred image. Imagine that is a once in a lifetime shot. Wouldn't it be a frustration to have missed it? Some said that you can counter it with flash or with the anti-handshake feature for some compact digital camera but if you have seen the end result of these pictures, they usually don't look better than having a tripod. If you can't find a tripod, stack something like books to stabilize your camera so that you get the best out of your picture.
Now, I know that a lot of you are using compact digital camera and you can't control your aperture and shutter speed. What you can do is to look into your camera pre-program mode and select the most appropriate mode for the scene. Let's say you are in a dim environment, probably you can use the "birthday" or "party" mode. If you are trying to capture an athlete in action that is the time you use the "sport" mode.
However, some compact digital cameras do allow you to manipulate the exposure with an exposure meter so that you can over or underexpose your picture when you want to. This feature is resemblance to adjusting the aperture and shutter speed just that it is done by the camera itself.
You can also look into the setting of your camera and for some compact digital cameras you will find the "shutter priority" so that you can control the shutter speed while the camera controls the aperture and other settings. Once you got that, take some pictures with different shutter speed and you will get the feel of how different exposure can affect your pictures. :-)
Have fun photographing,
Michael Wong. :-)
Exposure is simply the total amount of light that falls on the image sensor (or film in film camera) when you are taking a picture. There are 2 ways for you to get the right exposure for your picture.
1. Set your digital camera to auto and let it works its magic or
2. You manually control the aperture or f-stop (to control the brightness) and shutter speed (to control the duration of light entering the camera link shutter speed)
Another thing you need to know about exposure in photography is that it is determined by the sensitivity of the medium you use and this sensitivity is measured by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Surely you can still remember the different film you bought for different occasion during film photography time and that different speed of film is the ISO for film photography. Since we are in digital photography, we can now select the ISO from the camera with ease. Thank you technology. :-)
Do remember that aperture and shutter speed work hand in hand to give you the right exposure to your picture. Imagine that you are taking a picture during a sunny day when light is not an issue. So, the picture you get by having a normal aperture and shutter speed will be similar to the picture you get when you set your camera to the auto mode.
Then, what if you are taking picture in a dim environment? If you continue with the auto mode, you might underexpose your picture. That is the time you need to adjust aperture to make it bigger (smaller f-stop) so that more light can go into the camera. Remember that shutter speed and aperture work together? In this case, you will want to slow down the shutter speed to have more light going into the camera too.
One word of caution is that when you slow down the shutter speed, your camera is more sensitive to movement. A gentle handshake can result in a blurred image. Imagine that is a once in a lifetime shot. Wouldn't it be a frustration to have missed it? Some said that you can counter it with flash or with the anti-handshake feature for some compact digital camera but if you have seen the end result of these pictures, they usually don't look better than having a tripod. If you can't find a tripod, stack something like books to stabilize your camera so that you get the best out of your picture.
Now, I know that a lot of you are using compact digital camera and you can't control your aperture and shutter speed. What you can do is to look into your camera pre-program mode and select the most appropriate mode for the scene. Let's say you are in a dim environment, probably you can use the "birthday" or "party" mode. If you are trying to capture an athlete in action that is the time you use the "sport" mode.
However, some compact digital cameras do allow you to manipulate the exposure with an exposure meter so that you can over or underexpose your picture when you want to. This feature is resemblance to adjusting the aperture and shutter speed just that it is done by the camera itself.
You can also look into the setting of your camera and for some compact digital cameras you will find the "shutter priority" so that you can control the shutter speed while the camera controls the aperture and other settings. Once you got that, take some pictures with different shutter speed and you will get the feel of how different exposure can affect your pictures. :-)
Have fun photographing,
Michael Wong. :-)
Friday, January 23, 2009
Lighting Up Your Pictures
Before you even took on photography, you know that light plays a major role in your pictures. How you use the light will either wow your viewers or get them to question your skills. Both the compact digital camera and professional DSLR camera are able to take picture automatically with optimize lighting. This is done by the built in meter which measures the amount light reflected to the camera.
Then, is that all you can do with lighting? If that is all, you can call me whatever you want for starting this post. You can now look into the angle of light.
Know that shadow add marvelous effect to your picture and you can control the kind of shadow you want with different angle of light. The simplest thing you can do with the angle of light is to create a silhouette of your subject. Let’s imagine that the sun is setting in front of you and your subject is looking at you. When you take the picture at this moment, your subject will appear to be a black silhouette that is underexposed.
Besides, exposing your subject with lighting from the left or right will create different feeling to the picture and this often seen in portrait photography. That is probably why sometime you hear people say my left face looks better than my right. :-)
Although you can play with lighting from almost all angles, beware of light shining directly to your subject because this will overexpose your subject. If this is the case you can either you can block the light source or flash on your subject. However, you can only so much flashing your subject under this kind of condition because you can still see the artificial light on your subject. This is even worst when your subject is a person with oily face or heavy make up. If you can try to disperse your flash or step further from your subject.
I am always amazed of some photographers who can get the ray of light in their picture. I have tried to do it but I am not sure whether it is my poor skill (I was told you can do this with very slow shutter speed and narrow aperture) or my timing, the pictures I took are disasters. Don't you feel great when you capture ray of light penetrating the clouds or light pouring from the glass roof? When you can do that, it definitely signify that you have move up another level for digital photography. I sure want to reach that level ASAP.
Have fun photographing,
Michael Wong. :-)
P.S. Look here for affordable and easy to use DSLR camera. You can enjoy great value and free shipping to your doorstep...
Then, is that all you can do with lighting? If that is all, you can call me whatever you want for starting this post. You can now look into the angle of light.
Know that shadow add marvelous effect to your picture and you can control the kind of shadow you want with different angle of light. The simplest thing you can do with the angle of light is to create a silhouette of your subject. Let’s imagine that the sun is setting in front of you and your subject is looking at you. When you take the picture at this moment, your subject will appear to be a black silhouette that is underexposed.
Besides, exposing your subject with lighting from the left or right will create different feeling to the picture and this often seen in portrait photography. That is probably why sometime you hear people say my left face looks better than my right. :-)
Although you can play with lighting from almost all angles, beware of light shining directly to your subject because this will overexpose your subject. If this is the case you can either you can block the light source or flash on your subject. However, you can only so much flashing your subject under this kind of condition because you can still see the artificial light on your subject. This is even worst when your subject is a person with oily face or heavy make up. If you can try to disperse your flash or step further from your subject.
I am always amazed of some photographers who can get the ray of light in their picture. I have tried to do it but I am not sure whether it is my poor skill (I was told you can do this with very slow shutter speed and narrow aperture) or my timing, the pictures I took are disasters. Don't you feel great when you capture ray of light penetrating the clouds or light pouring from the glass roof? When you can do that, it definitely signify that you have move up another level for digital photography. I sure want to reach that level ASAP.
Have fun photographing,
Michael Wong. :-)
P.S. Look here for affordable and easy to use DSLR camera. You can enjoy great value and free shipping to your doorstep...
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Just To Share Again...
Here are some of the pictures I taken just for comparison. Here is the bouquet of flower.
Personally, I think this is quite dull and feels like something are missing. Then, look at this one
Better right? I think is because I included more color like green and purple in that picture. What do you think?
Have fun photographing,
Michael Wong. :-)
P.S. Look here for affordable and easy to use DSLR camera. You can enjoy great value and free shipping to your doorstep...
A normal bouquet of flower right? Take a look at this then,
Personally, I think this is quite dull and feels like something are missing. Then, look at this oneBetter right? I think is because I included more color like green and purple in that picture. What do you think?Have fun photographing,
Michael Wong. :-)
P.S. Look here for affordable and easy to use DSLR camera. You can enjoy great value and free shipping to your doorstep...
Saturday, January 17, 2009
How Digital Photography Evolved...
Looking at the current technology of digital photography, you can't imagine what it has gone through to become the beautiful art today. It was dated that photography started around 1600 (it was more than 400 years ago. Such amazing history if you ask me).
I have never seen how a camera looks like during the 1600 but I bet it can be bulky and difficult to carry. The oldest cameras I know are the one that I see movies where the photographer needs to hide himself under the black cloth and hold the flash up. When the photographer snaps the picture, it will give out loud sound with the blinding flash. Then, the subjects will rub their eyes because of the flash. I am not sure whether the camera does "blind" the subject at that time but it was funny to see the technology at that time.
To me, photography only started to be fun when Robert Eastman (founder of Kodak) started to promote handheld film camera to the consumer. At that time, there were no photograph processing centres like you see in the 1980. In order for you to see the pictures you have taken, you need to send the whole camera back to US, let the professionals process the film and re-load your camera with film then only you will get your pictures and camera back. The process might sound to be lengthy still it actually takes 3-4 weeks to get these things done. Looking at the technology at that time, you can say that is a fast service.
And as technology improve, you can buy the film and re-load the film yourself instead of sending your camera back to Kodak for processing. It was at around 1930 that Kodak developed Kodachrome color processing which color photography was made available to the consumers. During that time you can send your film to the photo processing center and get to see your pictures in 4 days to a week.
Then in 1980s, Fuji developed the world first disposable camera. With the presence of the disposable camera, you can buy a camera to take picture for a particular event. This has made photography more affordable to the consumer because they don't need to buy a camera.
When you buy the disposable camera, the film is already loaded in the camera. Then, just like a point and shoot camera, you just snap the pictures and send the whole camera for processing. And after 2-4 days, you can share the pictures with your friends and family.
However, it doesn't take long for Fuji to introduce the first truly digital camera in 1988. By using complimentary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) or charge coupled device (CCD) as image sensor, you can now look at your pictures immediately on the LCD screen. If you don't like what you have taken, you can just delete the picture and take a brand new one knowing that you won't be wasting any film.
And ever since the introduction of digital camera, film cameras started to meet their downfall. The numbers of picture developing center has reduced tremendously over the years. If you look at the development of digital photography properly, it only took 20 years for it to become what it is today (I still have my Fuji film camera with me and it still looks good) and you can still see that digital photography is evolving everyday. New equipments are being developed, new techniques are being introduced and careers that you never heard of are being built with digital photography.
As how I see it, there are still a lot of rooms for digital photography to grow. You will have cheaper yet more powerful digital camera in the future. Not to mention the possibility of printing the pictures yourself with cheaper printer and ink. I do hope that printer developers can build a printer that can print photos and documents together. Plus, in the future, more and more players will start to compete in the photo editing software market. When that happens, you and I will be enjoying more affordable and user friendly software. :-)
Have fun photographing,
Michael Wong. :-)
P.S. Look here for affordable and easy to use compact digital camera. You can enjoy great value and free shipping to your doorstep...
I have never seen how a camera looks like during the 1600 but I bet it can be bulky and difficult to carry. The oldest cameras I know are the one that I see movies where the photographer needs to hide himself under the black cloth and hold the flash up. When the photographer snaps the picture, it will give out loud sound with the blinding flash. Then, the subjects will rub their eyes because of the flash. I am not sure whether the camera does "blind" the subject at that time but it was funny to see the technology at that time.
To me, photography only started to be fun when Robert Eastman (founder of Kodak) started to promote handheld film camera to the consumer. At that time, there were no photograph processing centres like you see in the 1980. In order for you to see the pictures you have taken, you need to send the whole camera back to US, let the professionals process the film and re-load your camera with film then only you will get your pictures and camera back. The process might sound to be lengthy still it actually takes 3-4 weeks to get these things done. Looking at the technology at that time, you can say that is a fast service.
And as technology improve, you can buy the film and re-load the film yourself instead of sending your camera back to Kodak for processing. It was at around 1930 that Kodak developed Kodachrome color processing which color photography was made available to the consumers. During that time you can send your film to the photo processing center and get to see your pictures in 4 days to a week.
Then in 1980s, Fuji developed the world first disposable camera. With the presence of the disposable camera, you can buy a camera to take picture for a particular event. This has made photography more affordable to the consumer because they don't need to buy a camera.
When you buy the disposable camera, the film is already loaded in the camera. Then, just like a point and shoot camera, you just snap the pictures and send the whole camera for processing. And after 2-4 days, you can share the pictures with your friends and family.
However, it doesn't take long for Fuji to introduce the first truly digital camera in 1988. By using complimentary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) or charge coupled device (CCD) as image sensor, you can now look at your pictures immediately on the LCD screen. If you don't like what you have taken, you can just delete the picture and take a brand new one knowing that you won't be wasting any film.
And ever since the introduction of digital camera, film cameras started to meet their downfall. The numbers of picture developing center has reduced tremendously over the years. If you look at the development of digital photography properly, it only took 20 years for it to become what it is today (I still have my Fuji film camera with me and it still looks good) and you can still see that digital photography is evolving everyday. New equipments are being developed, new techniques are being introduced and careers that you never heard of are being built with digital photography.
As how I see it, there are still a lot of rooms for digital photography to grow. You will have cheaper yet more powerful digital camera in the future. Not to mention the possibility of printing the pictures yourself with cheaper printer and ink. I do hope that printer developers can build a printer that can print photos and documents together. Plus, in the future, more and more players will start to compete in the photo editing software market. When that happens, you and I will be enjoying more affordable and user friendly software. :-)
Have fun photographing,
Michael Wong. :-)
P.S. Look here for affordable and easy to use compact digital camera. You can enjoy great value and free shipping to your doorstep...
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Just To Share...
Here are some of the pictures I took for my 12/31/2008 dinner.
Below are some of the pictures I edited with software and I hope you are ok with them.
Below are some of the pictures I edited with software and I hope you are ok with them.
Also here are some of the pictures I took for the dishes. You can compare the pictures of the whole dish and the close up. For me personally, I like the close up more.
By the way, don't you think that the lamb is much thicker and the plate is more occupied when you are looking at the close up? That is one of the tricks you can play with food photography.
And I edited the one below with software too. Doesn't the lamb looks more delicious now? It is like it is shouting for you to sink your teeth in it...
So you see, there are a lot of things that you can do when come to digital photography. You just need to open your mind and more ideas will come to you.
Have fun photographing,
Michael Wong. :-)
P.S. Look here for affordable and easy to use DSLR camera. You can enjoy great value and free shipping to your doorstep...
Saturday, January 10, 2009
How About Nude Photography?
I am not talking about pornography or anything exotic here. After I read this short article , it gets me thinking. Can I do this? Can I be professional enough to engage in this art without having second thought about my models?
This can be difficult looking at my own state of mind because after looking at the nude photography and pornography pictures (I am sorry that I can't show them here), I think I am still having difficulty "controlling" myself (if you understand what I mean).
If I do get involve in the art, this going to blow my family off. This is because from the way I was brought up, nude photography is something filthy and unacceptable to my culture. You are not supposed to reveal your body to the public. They will wonder what is wrong with me and my models.
What if I were my own model for nude photography? Worst still. The first thing that goes to their mind is that I must be chasing some invisible fame. It will need a lot of convincing and explanation to make them see the value why I am practicing the art.
Come to think of it, probably nude photography is not going to be included into my portfolio. At least for the time being.
However, you can't deny the fact that the nude photographers have created such wonderful art that it left the viewers in awe (at least I did). Their talents have made something so special out of something so debatable.
By the way, what do you think about nude photography?
Have fun photographing,
Michael Wong. :-)
P.S. Look here for affordable and easy to use compact digital camera. You can enjoy great value and free shipping to your doorstep...
This can be difficult looking at my own state of mind because after looking at the nude photography and pornography pictures (I am sorry that I can't show them here), I think I am still having difficulty "controlling" myself (if you understand what I mean).
If I do get involve in the art, this going to blow my family off. This is because from the way I was brought up, nude photography is something filthy and unacceptable to my culture. You are not supposed to reveal your body to the public. They will wonder what is wrong with me and my models.
What if I were my own model for nude photography? Worst still. The first thing that goes to their mind is that I must be chasing some invisible fame. It will need a lot of convincing and explanation to make them see the value why I am practicing the art.
Come to think of it, probably nude photography is not going to be included into my portfolio. At least for the time being.
However, you can't deny the fact that the nude photographers have created such wonderful art that it left the viewers in awe (at least I did). Their talents have made something so special out of something so debatable.
By the way, what do you think about nude photography?
Have fun photographing,
Michael Wong. :-)
P.S. Look here for affordable and easy to use compact digital camera. You can enjoy great value and free shipping to your doorstep...
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Expressing Myself With Photography
"Pictures tell a story without words". And everyone has their own stories to tell. That is what I admire about photographer. They are marvelous story teller.
How I take my pictures is my own perception and how I see the world. There are just so many ways to look at a subject (or an incident). The way I like to photograph a cup of tea is to zoom to the edge of cup while it is hot with steam. I can't really tell you why but something about that feel better than capturing the whole cup of tea (you will see both pictures below).
In both pictures, I added flash so you can see the steam. I should have used a black cloth instead of white because it made the lower picture too bright. See, that is why you need to plan before you take your picture. Don’t be like me.
So, you see, photography is an art that is totally up to us and with the help of a camera; there is no telling what you and I can create. Just know that how you display your pictures is how you express your own individuality. It is totally personal and up to your personalities. Plus, your unique experience of the world is what made up the person you are today. And your personal experience becomes your stories. So, all of us can bring different stories to the table and get it broadcasted.
Have fun photographing,
Michael Wong. :-)
How I take my pictures is my own perception and how I see the world. There are just so many ways to look at a subject (or an incident). The way I like to photograph a cup of tea is to zoom to the edge of cup while it is hot with steam. I can't really tell you why but something about that feel better than capturing the whole cup of tea (you will see both pictures below).
In both pictures, I added flash so you can see the steam. I should have used a black cloth instead of white because it made the lower picture too bright. See, that is why you need to plan before you take your picture. Don’t be like me.
So, you see, photography is an art that is totally up to us and with the help of a camera; there is no telling what you and I can create. Just know that how you display your pictures is how you express your own individuality. It is totally personal and up to your personalities. Plus, your unique experience of the world is what made up the person you are today. And your personal experience becomes your stories. So, all of us can bring different stories to the table and get it broadcasted.
Have fun photographing,
Michael Wong. :-)
P.S. Look here for affordable and easy to use compact digital camera. You can enjoy great value and free shipping to your doorstep...
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