DSLR and First Impressions

I have not posted anything for a while. No, I do not intend to give up blogging. I was very busy with my work at the end of the last year. I did not have enough time even to go to take shots.

Also, I bought my first DSLR camera. I was content with SX10; I just wanted to move forward. I gave up smoking; therefore, my wife could not stop me. I am joking. Of course, she could. However, we had a deal about giving up smoking. In short, I have a Canon 500D (or Rebel Ti1 or Kiss X3) camera kit. The kit contained Canon 18-55/F3.5-5.6 EF-S IS lens. Many people say it is not worth buying this lens. However, its price was very low because of the kit.

My first impression was rather ambivalent. I liked the focus related functions of the SX10. Now, I have small black dots, which turns into red if the get the focus. By default, all of these dots are active. It means that the focus will be set on the closest object. Is not it very useful? As soon as I could, I made only the central AF point active. It gave me a bit more comfort. Changing the active AF point is not difficult. I am able to do it with viewfinder on my eye.

So, I had only one lens. It is indeed limited possibility in comparison with the SX10. All serene! I like landscape shots. I mentioned I was very busy; therefore, I could take my camera late afternoon. Soon, I realized that my old tripod is not suitable for the new DSLR. The moving mirror of the camera made the tripod shake. Yes, there is a mirror lockup function. I did not know of this feature that time and it is not the most comfortable method the prevent camera shake.

I tried to take shot holding the camera with AUTO ISO settings. It gave unbelievable good result. The shot above was taken with ISO 1600.

I liked the colors also. The shots taken with 500D contain more colors than I could achieve with SX10. One of my favorite shots was about the benches of course.

The colors were great. The sharpness is another problem. In certain conditions, the image can be sharp using this lens. In certain conditions... I read interesting articles about the unbelievable great sharpness of this lens. It is called “To people saying 18-55 is not sharp enough.”. You can read it on flickr. The author of the article showed some captures as an evidence. The only problem is that images having small size are always sharp. Examining the shot in its real size, hmm, well, maybe, the sharpness will go away. From the other hand, if this kit lens were so great, nobody would buy more expensive lens.

I like these lens and I have some nice shots taken with it. Just, I suppose there are better lenses.

HDR Images

I have different feelings on HDR images. I sometimes like HDR shots having futuristic peculiarity. They looks very interesting. I also like HDR images, which look realistic. What I do not like is unnatural finery of colors. I do not like when every color, every tone shine in the picture, like an advertisement.

Creating HDR images from technical point of view is interesting for me. But, I prefer the shots made by camera. It does not mean that I am fun of SOOC. I am far from it. I believe that some postwork makes the photo better until it garbles the truth.

I like to try everything new, so, I wanted to create my own HDR image. It was not easy to find good tutorials. The only problem was that almost all tutorial was created for Photoshop users. I do not have Photoshop. Maybe, it is very good software; but it is too expensive for me. I spend enough money for buying photography accessories. According to my wife’s opinion, I waste too much money for my hobby. It is why I became a GIMP user. I have not found a good tutorial for GIMP users; I created my own method. The idea of the technology was stolen from Photoshop tutorials. If you have a better method to create HDR images, please leave comment to this post or send me an e-mail.

Let us start. To create a HDR images, you must have at least to shots, which differ only in exposure value. I usually use 3 shots. I read that others created a HDR images from 5 or more shots. I tried it too, but I did not see the positive effect of usage of more than 5 photos.

The keywords of taking shots for HDR images are fastness and accuracy. Fastness is important especially if the subject of the shots is movable or moves. For example, it is very difficult to take such shots of trees moving in the wind. The result will be blurry. My first HDR shoots were taken manually. Then, as I became cleverer, I used the AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing). It is faster and easier. :)

I use one or two exposure values difference between the shots. I usually take three shots. The first shot is taken with correct exposure, the second is overexposed and the third is underexposed.

Accuracy is provided by the usage of the tripod. I do not want to waste my time with adjusting images, so I want my subject to be exactly on the same place in all shots. Somebody wrote she could hold the camera without tripod. Well, I am far from being superhero. My advice is to use tripod.

Now, let us say you have 3 different shots. Open your GIMP and load the shot with correct exposure value. Then create two transparent layer on the shot. Open the underexposed (darker) shot, select the whole image and paste the middle layer of the base photo. When you are ready, do the same with the overexposed shot, but insert it in the third layer.

Right click on the middle layer, you will get a menu. Select the “Add Layer Mask” menu. In the opening window, select “Greyscale copy of layer” option and add it to the image (Add button).

Then click on the third layer containing the overexposed shot. Select the “Add Layer Mask” menu. In the opening window, select “Greyscale copy of layer” option and be sure that “Invert mask” option is clicked. If you are ready, then add the mask to the image (Add button).

That is all; you are ready. I usually Merge down the layers until I have only one layer. It is worth to adjust levels (Adjust color levels) to make colors more vivid.

Darkness in the Wood

I always admired water shots taken with long exposure time. I tried to capture water, but the photo became overexposed, as it was not dark enough. Finally, I bought an ND8 filter. I wanted to try it as soon as possible, but I had to wait until the weekend.

I remembered a nice place, where I met waterfalls and cascades in every 10 minutes. I had not been there since my teen ages. Nevertheless, I hoped that my memories would not play the fool with me.

We arrived and I realized that my expectations were correct. The wood was wonderful and hidden streams ran in several places among the trees not far from the side path.

It was the first time I had used ND8 filter. I read that it was difficult to use, because the photographer could not see clearly through the dark filter. My bridge camera has an acceptable live mode, so I did not really meet this problem.

I took some shots of blurred streams and I like them. I realized that long exposure time made colors deeper in the capture. Of course, I used my good old tripod. The LCD screen on my camera contains few pixels (260.000 ?). In the wood, I did not think of the size of the LCD screen. I was just happy looking at the awesome colors.

Well, the colors were wonderful and the waterfalls were blurred nicely. I wanted more. I wanted a white silken stream instead of the water. I took out the CPL filter from my bag and put it before the ND8. Such way, I gained more exposure time. I enjoyed taking shots very much.

I was excited while I was downloading pictures from the camera to my notebook. When the download process finished I opened the images in the picture browser. I realized only at home that most of my shots were overexposed. Well, not the whole photo was overexposed, just its parts, where the sky could be seen via the trees. The sky was white. Tones were lost beyond recovery.

I selected some shots that could be rescued. It was not an easy lesson for me. I knew I would never forget to check if there is overexposed part on the capture.

Next time, when I was in other forest and used long exposure time, I took shots and checked every shot carefully on the LCD display. I think the photos became better, at least from technical point of view.

Mini Photo Studio

I bought a Dolica PS-240 Portable Photo Studio Kit. It contains two studio lamps, a small camera stand, a dual-sided non-reflective background screen and 4 background drops (black, white, red and blue). The main element of the kit is a bag, where you can store lamps, camera stand and background drops. It is very easy to install, in fact the bag itself is a tent. The dimensions of the tent are 45 * 9 * 45 cm (17.5 * 3.5 * 17.5 inches). Its price is very low approximately 60 USD. Of course, it is not the highest quality photo studio kit, but, it is a quite good solution for hobby purposes. Studio lights are just a lamp having professional design. Unfortunately, they can work for no more than 10 minutes without a break.

So, I was working (or playing) with this kit. Before starting, I had to iron out the background drops. Well, I am not very good at ironing and I was afraid of burn the background. Some process of ironing lasted for about half hour. The white background looked better; the black one remained a bit creased.

The first subject to be captured was an old Soviet camera. I decided to use white background. It was my first experiment with lighting. My approach was far from scientific; I just switched on the lights and moving them checking the result. I did not have much time to experiment, as the light can work for only 10 minutes. However, this stage is very enjoyable. Believe me. :)

The most problematical was the usage of the camera stand. Fixing the camera is not easy. I had to hold the camera, find its horizontal position and fixing the bolt at the same time. I hated it.

The tent and the camera stand stood in a table. It was also a problem, as I could capture only the top of the subject. The only solution was to bend the tripod. Here, there was a possibility to play again while fixing the camera. I had to say this camera stand is not my favorite. Later, I took it away and use my tripod instead.

At the end, I could take some shots. The subject, the old camera was black with some shine metallic lines. I realized that a bit overexposing the photo, the white background became almost invisible.

This technique works well until the subject is dark. If you examine the sample shot, you can realize that the background is not white enough. It is because I used the automatic white balance. It would have be better to use manual settings.

I met a problem during using the white background. I was in a hurry to install the photo studio so mush that I forgot to take away the tablecloth. I cannot realize it until I switched on the lights. Then I was too lazy to take the tablecloth out. Now, I have a pretty nice shot, where you can see its pattern through the white background. :(

I had some problem with the black background, too. As I mentioned it was not smooth enough, as I was not very good at ironing. The tine waves could be seen on my every shot.

I started playing with exposition like in case of the white background. Of course, I wanted to make my capture darker. But, it did not work well. The subject itself became dark too.

I do not have PS, as it is too expensive not for me but for my wife. :) She tries to limit financial outgoings on my new hobby. Well, I would better buy a DSLR camera instead of PS. Fortunately, the GIMP is always with you. I made a small postwork on my shots with black background with gimp. With adjusting color levels function I cut off the black tones from my capture. Such way, I got a nice black background instead of dark waves.

Shots Of Ducks

Everybody hates shots of ducks. According to my friends’ opinion, capturing ducks is good-for-nothing. Last week, I read an article explaining needless of taking such shots. However, I am sure everybody took shots of ducks. I believe everybody had so called duck period in his/her life.

I admit that there are dozens of photos of ducks and these shots are very similar. It is very good to take interesting duck photos. In addition, I admit I do not find interesting such shots including my ones. It is interesting why people do not count capturing lowering sun useless. There are dozens of such photos. They look the same, not counting some interesting captures. What is the difference between duck photos and shots of the lowering sun? I do not know. Why is so funny to capture ducks and why is not funny to capture the lowering sun? I do not know. What about the flowers? You must be very talented to take interesting shots of flowers. You must be very creative if you would like to take a unique shot of flowers. Are flowers better ducks?

Please, do not misunderstand me. I know that most of duck shots are not interesting. Look at this photo taken by me. Nothing special.

My most interesting photo of duck is capturing a water drop with the duck. But, this shot is not very interesting.

However, taking shots of ducks was very important to me from point of view learning photography. I tried to capture other bird, too. But small birds can be taken hardly with my bridge camera. From this point of view, ducks, mallards and swans are ideal subject. They do not fear of people, so you can go very close to them.

I learned much taking such these half-wild birds. For example, I was very proud on my swam shot, until somebody did not mention that it was too white. The title of the shot is White Hunter. Somebody made a comment “It is indeed white”. :) From this point, I have started to use exposition correction. I do not know where this shot is. I can show you other shot of white swam like an example of a bad shot.

What can I say? Do not be afraid of taking ducks. Your photos may not win the photo of the year award, but you can learn much about the photography and you can earn useful practice.

Last but not least, you can enjoy the moment of pushing the shutter button on your camera. Is not it the most important for a hobby photographer?

Panorama Shots

Interesting part of landscape photography is panorama shots. There are special cameras for this purpose and many other cameras support panorama captures. My camera is one of them.

I liked the wide panorama captures and I wanted to take such shots. It is very easy. Panorama shots can be created without any support if you have a picture manipulating software like Photoshop or GIMP. All you have to have is a tripod. Just mount the camera to the tripod, make a shot, turn your camera horizontally, take the second shot and so on. In the end, you will have series of captures, which can be united with GIMP or other software. The only requirement is that pictures must have common parts.

I have a good book, the author of which suggested marking the first and the last picture of the panorama series. His method is simple. Before taking the first picture, capture your finger and after finishing the last shot, capture two of your fingers. Such way, you will know that images between “fingers” belong to one panorama series.

I applied this method. Later, when I uploaded photos to a computer, I realized that it was not necessary to do, as my camera supports the panorama shots and it put series into different folders. Now, I have very good capture of my fingers. :)

The software of my camera is able to create a panorama shot from the standalone photos. It is very easy; I selected the photos in the preferred order, set the direction of moving the camera and pressed the Create button.

The software cannot create a panorama shot from one of the series; other shots were good. I do not understand the reason of failure. I just suppose that I left too much time before two shots and the landscape changed too much. Do not forget, clouds fly over the sky, and if the sky is fairly big on the shot, then it is difficult to find the common part.

Now, I know there is no time to waste. I must take shots without delay, just turn the camera and press the button and turn and press, very quickly.

Landscapes

Recently, I started taking shot of landscapes. I enjoyed watching awesome landscape shots taken by others. Once, I got a book written about my home county. This book contained many photos of the countryside. The photos were awful. They were so awful that I could not describe them. I am still a newcomer hobby photographer, yet I knew I could make better photos.

When I was on holiday, I grabbed my camera and sat in my car to travel around and take some shots. This trip was very enjoyable to me and I took many photos. Of course, I met challenges. Before going to this trip, I read some books of landscape photographer. These books said the photographer must have woken up early to catch the wonderful lights of sunrise. I planned to wake up early morning. But, it was just a plan and when I went out of the town it was about 10:00 AM. I missed the colorful sunrise. :(

I was sure that I was wasting my time, but I did not give up and continued my tour. I stopped my car very often to take shots. Some interesting clouds swam across the blue sky.

The first challenge I met was setting the proper exposure values. I measure the light on the sky and the fields became dark. Measure light on the field, the sky became whiter and the clouds disappeared. Clever books I read did not say anything of this problem.

I tried different settings of the camera, and the optimal seemed measuring light on the clothes and increasing the exposure collection by about one positive number. Such way both the clouds and the fields were shown on the shots. Maybe it is not the standard way; however it gave the best result for me.

As I mentioned, I took many photos breaking one of the rules. This rule said that the photographer had to give a title to a shot before taking it. With other words, the photographer must know the reason of taking shot. Capturing wonderful landscape is not enough, as there are many shots of awesome landscapes. This rule is easy to understand, but very hard to keep. :)

Later, when I was browsing among the photo files, I learned importance of this rules. Next time, I will not waste my time capturing lovely but boring landscapes. I will save my time to find something really interesting.