Great Guide for the Canon DSLR EOS 6D

Kenrockwell has a very good guide on how to use the Canon EOS 6D.

It is quite easy to read and understand for both amateur and professionals alike..

Here is the link

Wanna know the list of current camera gear I am using?

Singapore F1 eve of training race

Since I do not have any Singapore F1 2011 tickets, I couldn't take pictures of the actual race.

Well, the tracks are all lit up on the eve of the first race and I thought I try my luck to see if I can walk into the area.

I'd always drive past the ECP Rochor exit and there is a small footpath along the exit that allows a good shot to the starting line.. And since the roads were closed that night, I had to park quite some distance away and walk towards the highway..

Here are the pictures I took at 2am on 22 Sept 2011.

I also tried some creative effects with Gimp to create the tilt-shift [ toy camera ] effect.

Instructions can be found here.
The result of this effect makes everything looks like miniature. See pic below.

"I built this diorama of the Singapore F1 circuit starting line!"

Wanna know the list of current camera gear I am using?

Full Body Portraiture Poses aka Mistakes to Avoid

There is a reason why hands should be placed on hips, and not anywhere else, for full body portraits.

Such are mistakes to learn from and not commit.

Picture was first seen here

Wanna know the list of current camera gear I am using?

Macro DIY Flash Diffuser from Kingfisher

I was not too happy with the lighting effects of my current DIY flash diffuser/reflector and went googling on the web for better ones.


Came across this blog site that has a good example..

May try to replicate it using stuff at home.


http://kingfisherphotography.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-macro-rig.html

The expected results are as follows

Pics courtesy from King Fisher Blog

Wanna know the list of current camera gear I am using?

Helvatica Font to improve dull photos

When a bad photo is taken, usually due to poor composition or exposure, there isn't much that can be done..

Digital filters and colour levels adjustments can only do that much.

But wait, there is a little trick to make your pictures more interesting...

A font named "Helvatica".

Classic example in the link below.

LOL : something in helvetica

Photo origin : The Million Word Year

Wanna know the list of current camera gear I am using?

ISO, APERTURE, SHUTTER SPEEDS and EXPOSURE

This article below was a casual writeup by me on Clubsnap forums, where it first appeared. I was writing a reply to (Sam Goh) my brother-in-law's post in his thread where he was asking for some guidance in using his Canon G12.

Higher ISO [ more sensitive to light, allow for bigger apertures (smaller F numbers) and shorter (faster) shutter speeds to achieve the correct exposure ]
However, as ISO goes higher, your picture will turn out less sharper.
Lower ISO will result in sharper images.

Higher F numbers (aka smaller apertures) will result in sharper pictures but will require shutter speeds to be longer to achieve the correct exposure.

Faster shutter speeds will prevent handshake blur and reduce subject motion blur but will require an decreasing F number [ larger apertures ] in order to achieve the correct exposure.

On the other hand, slower shutter speeds is sometimes preferred to capture the motion blur intentionally [ ie moving headlights on road at night ]

This formula served me well

Perfect exposure = (F number)/(Shutter speed)
ie Shutter speeds are inversely proportional to the aperture.

And if the metering system of the camera still shows that the pic is under or over-exposed when u have reached the limits of both the apertures and shutter speeds of the camera and still unable to achieve the correct exposure...

It's time to up the ISO.

My advice.
indoors during the day : ISO400
indoors at night with fluorescent lighting : ISO800 (ISO400 if using external flash)
outdoors during sunny day : ISO100
outdoors during overcast day : ISO200
outdoors during night : ISO800 and above depending on intended exposure time(shutter speed) and flash or non flash
For long night exposure outdoors, can try ISO100 for landscape with long exposures.



Last but not least,

Taking a photograph is like filling a bucket of water..[ aka achieving correct exposure ]

How long you wanna open the tap for [ shutter speed ] 
and
What is the diameter of the water pipe outlet [ aperture ]?

The 2 critical factors and have different values and will eventually fill up the bucket..

The only question left is how fast you wanna fill it up.

Wanna know the list of current camera gear I am using?

Safe shutter speed for handheld photography

A good tip I read from another photography related blog.

Safe shutter speed for handheld photography..

To ensure that the picture is not affected by handshake, the photographer should set the shutter speed to 1/(2xN) where N is the focal length of the lens.

eg. Using a 55-250mm focal length zoom lens at its maximum 250mm, the maximum recommended shutter speed should be 1/(2x250) = 1/500 s.

This rule applies regardless of aperture of lens. Of course, there'd be cases where the metering will say that this picture will be underexposed if the environment is of low-lighting. That'd probably mean you'd not be able to use the camera in the handheld manner and it'd be time to bring out the tripod.

Image stabilization built into the lens mechanism may help a little. ( 1-2 stops above the tolerance shutter limit as advised above ) But please do not attempt to shoot anything with a shutter speed of more than 2 seconds using handheld DSLR. IS(Canon) or VR(Nikon) or OS(Sigma) or VC(Tamron) doesn't mean it's super duper no shake.

For subjects that are inanimate, tripod with long exposure may get the desired picture. But for subjects that can and will move, it'd be preferable to use a flash instead. However, using a flash have its limitation of distance.

Thus under low light conditions, if subject is not of near distance and constantly in motion, it might be better to return another time where there are more daylight to shoot the subject again.

Wanna know the list of current camera gear I am using?

Sunny 16 aperture, shutter, ISO guide

Good guide to sunny day aperture settings from Wikipedia.



The basic guide to photography exposure is very simple. If you have a bright, sunny day, then use f-stop 16 for your camera lens aperture. The shutter speed should then be set to the equivalent of your ISO film speed – or the next number over. For example, if you are using an ISO film speed of 100, your shutter speed should be set to 1/125. More than often, your shutter speed number will be higher than the ISO film speed, but it is much easier to remember that film speed equals shutter speed.

----- See the rest of the photos here -----

Wanna know the list of current camera gear I am using?