sun hits mushroom

www.adamglick.net/arttechblog

Now, I suspect that many of us on occasions, have use our compact (or DSLR) camera’s built-in, automatic flash. Yes, for the sake of convenience and/or sheer “necessity”, we have opted for that most beguiling photographic crutch. -that most overbearing yet inexplicably tolerated of photographic tools.

Oh, the horror.

But seriously, the harsh, glaring light that emanates from your digital camera’s  built-in flash will never be kind to the people or food you point your lens towards. It’s a matter of physics; Small, single sources of light in your scene will produce “hard” shadows, and “hot spots” on the subjects -and these are almost never flattering in a photograph.

It’s true. Without being otherwise diffused or bounced, the light from a camera’s flash unit will harden wrinkles and facial features -and can “plasticize” otherwise delicious looking dishes.   Hard, “specular” reflections from the flash’s also contribute to unnecessarily harsh-looking photos. And to add insult to injury, electronic flashes often blow away the subtleties of color and texture provided by otherwise perfectly pleasant natural light.

There’s something special about the gentle glow of 300 Christmas tree bulbs or the flickering soft beams falling from the flames in the hearth, or the subdued light just inside the stained-glass window inside the pub or restaurant booth down the street. There’s something special about the visual ambiance that get’s burned into memories along with all the rest. And it all goes to waste (i tell you!) when those teeny, weeny flash units get used to light the place up.

Now, to be fair, there are certainly methods one can use to bounce/diffuse the light from a built-in pop-flash in an effort to improve (soften) the light they ultimately produce.  But In my experience, these work-around methods (such as using an index card or empty coke bottle), while handy in a pinch, are neither reliable nor reliably effective.

This Christmas, I’d like to make a suggestion: don’t use the flash.   Or at least, don’t always use the flash.

Many consumer-level digital cameras offer manual or semi-automatic modes that can be used to help get good results shooting in low-light situations. And the latest generation of compact cameras are getting drastically better and better at coaxing good results for all sorts of  “natural light” shooting. If you use the combination of longer exposure times and a sturdy camera support, you can capture really cool photos of memorable occasions which protect the moment’s natural light – and charm by leaving a flash unit out of the recipe.

How’s that sound? Pretty good? Wanna know how to do it?

mkay.

So here’s what you will need:

-Your digital camera with manual/program/priority settings.
-a very steady hand or preferably, a tripod or minitripod (This place has a bunch of minitripods stating at $5)
-a relatively static (unmoving) scene

And here’s the process:

Step 1: Pull out your camera’s manual and/or access the camera’s settings

Step 2: Set the camera’s sensitivity or “ISO” setting to at least 800 unless the scene is really dark, then use a higher setting if there is one. This will increase the light sensitivity of the camera’s image sensor which will help reduce the shutter speed required.

Step 3: set the camera’s “white balance” to “tungsten” or “indoor”. This will ensure nice, clear, bright colors and white whites.

Step 4: Set the camera to “program” mode. This tells the camera to pick a shutter speed and aperture that will properly expose the image for the available light. If you know how to use the shutter priority/aperture priority modes, those are even better, but unfortunately, we don’t have room to go into that now.

Step 5: Disable (or just don’t enable) the built-in flash. If it’s a “pop-up” then don’t ‘“pop” it up. Depending on your camera model, turning off the flash may be a simple process, or may, irritatingly, take multiple steps.

Step 6: Point and focus the camera at your intended subject and ensure that the camera is positioned so as to remain motionless for the duration of the shot. This means, probably, use a tripod. I guess you could use a table or something with a flat surface, and then fold up some bits of paper or use stacked coins to level it out…but this fiddling is inelegant and mostly ineffective and definitely a pain in the ass.

Of course, You can hand-hold shots of this type -perhaps braced against a doorway or wall. But but you should expect many or most of your shots to come out blurry if you rely on this method. The thing is, without a flash, your nightime or low-light photos will require a very slow shutter speed -a longer exposure time so the camera can gather enough light to make a picture. If the camera moves much during this period of time, the final photo will be blurry. Even folks with the most steady hands may soon grow weary of seeing the majority of their shots reduced to a smear of light and color

If you are even half-way serious about your holiday snap photography, and I’m guessing you are if you’ve read this far, please take my advice and buy a tripod or mini-tripod. The latter are so small you can keep in your purse or glove box. This will open up new possibilities for all your photo-taking and I think You will be glad you did.)

Step 7: Take your picture.

Step 8: take a peek at the shot you just took to ensure that things are sufficiently sharp. If something is blurry, double-check the focus, tell you aunt to stop fidgeting, and retake the picture. If you are hand-holding the camera, have a shot of eggnog and/or go get your tripod.

You have now discovered whole new type of picture-making with your camera. And perhaps learned a little more about how your camera works. cool.

Now, here are some *caveats* and additional things to think about.

-your compact camera doesn’t really have a “shutter” like DSLRs and film cameras. There’s not moving parts that allow or block the light coming in. However, the electronic sensor behind your camera’s lens does have an “on-off” switch that serves precisely the same purpose and that is the function referred to when we invoke the word “shutter” here. (Isn’t that funny how a language will continue to use words that no longer describe something accurately? I think it is.) anyways…

-Shutter times are going to be between perhaps half a second -to several seconds long (for really dim scenes). It’s important that the people/things in your scene don’t move much (or at all) while the shutter is “open” or else they will be blurry in the photo. It’s kinda like the camera moving. Just don’t.

-If using a tripod, consider using the self-timer or delayed shooting mode – this will give everything a chance to stop shaking/vibrating before the “shutter” “opens”.

-Try to get the camera as physically close as you reasonably can to the subject without loosing anything important in the frame. This will be important in order to get as much image “resolution” in the subjects as possible. It’s important for cropping your image later as well as dealing with the following concept. This is also just a good common sense rule for photography in general.

-Using higher ISO settings will impart varying and increasing levels of “graininess” (digital noise) into the captured image. Also, the more you enlarge the photo for prints or viewing, the more pronounced the noise or grain will become visually. This is normal with all digital imaging technologies and has been a relative weak point for consumer digital cameras. In the past couple of years, however, consumer digital (& compact) cameras have been increasingly borrowing ideas from their more costly and capable DSLR siblings. Image sensors and pixel elements are getting larger and including smarter on-board image processing circuits and these changes are directly allowing for better quality photos using natural light – all with less noise and more create flexibility than was ever available on a “snap” camera.

One more thing about noise/grain. This graininess often looks great for your color shots that get converted to black and white. However, some shots will simply just be too grainy for their tastes. Many newer cameras are better at producing high-ISO photos with low noise. However, there are also software tools that are very effective at reducing and removing digital noise in your photos. Here’s a stand alone de-noising software utility for about $35 and here’s one for about $30

Oh! here’s a great article @ “the strobist” with a fantastic tutorial and some great techniques for shooting Christmas lights.
Well, cheers for now.

This project was for an importer of hand-made, specialty weapons and gear for an Indonesian/Philipino style of martial arts. Even if these are primarily used for practice, these things were very sharp, very heavy and could inflict the serous kind of death on anybody they came in forceful contact with. I especially loved how the uniqueness of each individual item is so apparent when you hold these in your hand.

In the commercially available side of things, we are seeing a number of, I’ll go ahead and say it – -Revolutionary– advancements in the technology of digital imaging.

Larger sensor means new tricks!

Many compact “consumer” cameras are now being designed using much larger imaging sensors than were previously available without moving up to more expensive DSLRs.  In some cases, these small cameras are also compatible with a range of interchangeable lenses.

So what are the implications here?

Well it’s now possible to get argueably “pro”-level image quality/resolution -and very good low-light performance in a compact and relatively inexpensive (way under $800) camera.  In fact, many pro’s are buying these and throwing them in their camera bag  as a backup to their backup – or for their personal “snap camera”. I’m not saying these are professional cameras…I’m saying that from an image quality perspective, consumer-grade cameras are getting very very good.

Here’s a few of the more notable models:

Olympus EP-1 “PEN”

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1461

Ricoh GRX/P10

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/ricohgxrp10/

Leica X1

http://www.thedigitalnewsroom.com/en/News/2472/Leica_X1_the_Leica_compact_camera_with_APS_C_sensor_inside.htm

If you want really good image quality in a small, lightweight camera package, thenvyou’re in luck, apparently.

HD VIDEO

Also, of huge importance is the HD-video-capture-on-a-still-camera movement. Over the past 18 months or so, virtually all camera manufacturers have been adding HD video capture capabilities to their still cameras. At the lower/consumer end of the market, these new video capabilities are pretty darn good. For under $400, you can get a camera that takes great looking stills AND nice looking HD video -even in fairly low light situations.

At the high-end, some of the video-enabled DSLR (Digital SLR) cameras (such as the Canon 7D (about $1700) and 5D MKII (about $2500)) are becoming more and more common as the primary motion picture cameras on the set of television commercials,  TV shows and independent films.

But why would a production company use a still camera to shoot a commercial or a movie instead of a video or digital cinematagraphy camera setup? Well, there are a few reasons:

1) kick ass low light performance – the image sensor in DSLRs is much larger than typical video cameras…thereby giving much better low-light sensitivity and while maintaining low “noise” (or graininess)

2) incredible variety of lenses allows DPs (Directors of Photography) almost infinite creative flexibility

3) shallow DOF (Depth of Field).  Having a camera and lens that can provide a shallow DOF will allow the filmmaker or photographer to “blur” either the background or the foreground -or both, thereby drawing the viewer’s attention (via the sharp focus) on the subject or object of interest.

4) very low cost – for under $5000 or $6000 (or even much less if you don’t need to buy all the rig accessories) can have a pro-level DSLR rig that squarely competes squarely (in terms of image quality) against “video” or “digital cinema” cameras and lenses costing 10X or even 20X as much.

This HD DSLR phenomenon has taken the high-end digital cinema camera companies such as Sony, Red, ARRI, Silicon Imaging and others for a loop. They didn’t see DSLRV coming to maturity so quickly -and it has certainly changed the technology landscape in this space. Only time will tell what happens – but one thing is for sure; Larger sensors seem to be the direction of development within the digital imaging realm.

The MegaPixel wars are NOT over!

Canon just this week announced that they have developed in one of their labs a 120 megapixel sensor. -And it’s the size of a standard APS-H  (smaller than 35 mm “full frame”) sensor found in high-end DSRL cameras.  The most pixels currently available in a DSLR Full-frame camera sensor is about 22 Million pixels (megapixels).

There are a few things to point out about this:

-Most theatrical releases (movies) you see at the theater contain about 12MP of effective (viewable) resolution (That’s about 4000 pixels wide by about 3000 pixels tall)

-a single uncompressed image from 120MP sensor would require about 360MB (megabytes) for storage. That’s about 20X the about required by today’s high-end DSLRs. You can  store an hour of HD video on your computer with 360MB!. Even using JPEG compression, we’re talking about 50 to 60 Megs per image.

So why all the megapixels?  Well because having so many pixels on the sensor allows a camera to do several things really well besides capturing a ton of “resolution”.

Dynamic Range

A sensor that size would (through some very complex technical wizardry) allow for amazing range of light sensitivity -also known as having a high “dynamic range”.  Today’s digital cameras are not very good at capturing all the details in scenes with both very dark shadows AND very bright highlights.  In these situations, the camera must choose (or be told) which areas of the scene to capture. You can expose the shot for the shadows, or for the highlights -but not both simultaneously. (You have seen this effect when you tried to take a photo in very bright sunlight, where the people or object you were trying to photograph came out looking very dark or black. ) Today the best digital cameras have about 13 “f-stops” of dynamic range. Consumer cameras have closer to 8 stops.  There are some experimental sensor designs that are capturing 18 or 19 stops of dynamic range. This is amazing and comes close (but not all the way) to competing with the sensitivity of the human eye.  Amazing!!!    For more reading go here: http://blog.kaiharding.com/?p=581

High Frame Rate

The other thing that these very large, very dense sensors can allow for is very high speed image (video) capture. If only a fraction of pixels on a high-density sensor are used, the circuitry can record images very very quickly. There are currently some high-speed digital cameras that can capture scenes at over 1000fps (frames per second). However, they can’t do it with a very high dynamic range – and they can’t do it in low light. A sensor design with 120MP could foreseeably do both.

OK, I think I’ve probably spent enough time rambling to thoroughly confuse even the most ardent tech geek. So i’ll stop for now.

**update** I should mention, for context, that there are already very high-end professional still cameras that offer up to 60MP  -such as the Hasselblad H4D. This is a “medium format” DSLR camera with an ENORMOUS sensor that is in a whole separate class (and price bracket) above “standard” DSLRs. And they are outside the scope of my little article… 

The bottom line is this: The image quality and flexibility provided by your next digital camera will probably surprise you and definitely help you capture the image you want to capture.

Here’s a few shots of some recent work I did for a well-known builder of custom pools here in central Texas.

The past two spring/summers were quickly hot and dry. And there was very little rainfall coming out of Winter.  Not en0ugh to fill the aquifers and not enough to keep most green things green.

This year we’ve had a fantastic Spring – lots of rain and sun – and mildly warming temperatures over the past couple of months.

Here are a few selected images from recent days that i found particularly pretty…

There are all sorts of flowers, trees, animals, bugs, butterflies, etc.  It is truly secluded and free from foot (or car) traffic other than perhaps just a few lucky souls that were lucky enough to tresspass into the right area.  

Here’s a few photos I took yesterday…

If you look closely, you can see small ripple rings radiating out on the surface where small water “worlds” splashed through …