Author Archives: InCamera

Getting up close

Photograph an ordinary household subject up close - take a new perspective

Kitchen implement - Photograph an ordinary household subject up close - take a new perspective

The year ahead

In January the New Year seems to stretch a long way into the future. Motivation can sometimes be down at this time of year. Here is an idea for you to try. Getting up close… It’s fun , so have a go!

Household items

One way to make your photographs have more impact is to take something quite ordinary and take a new perspective. Household items are ideal for this. We see them every day. In effect we treat them with a sort of contempt. So if we capture them in new way it provides a perspective that captures the imagination of the viewer.

The photograph above is a case in point. If you take fresh juice with your breakfast how long is it since you really looked at your juicer? Actually they can be quite interesting items. Lots of points of reflection and a great shape to create contrasts and variations in colour tone.

Getting up close… Kitchen implements

I find that up close, objects gain a sort of new life. Kitchen implements are particularly fun because they have lot of different surfaces and shapes. I love photographing shiny things. Be careful to minimise the highlights though. Too much bright light simply distracts the viewer. You really want to work up sparkles rather than blotches of light.

Your creativity is the only limit to enjoying your camera. Doing something new with ordinary objects is one way to stimulate your photography. Get up close if you can. Try a new angle. Whatever you do, try to make sure you have never tried it before. You will learn something and increase the impact of your image-making.

Why not pull out a kitchen implement now, get up close and have a go… just do it!

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Damon Guy - Netkonnexion

Damon Guy (Netkonnexion)

Damon is a writer-photographer and editor of this site. He has run some major websites, a computing department and a digital image library. He started out as a trained teacher and now runs training for digital photogs.
See also: Editors ‘Bio’.
By Damon Guy see his profile on Google+.

Are you getting enough? Personal Projects

This year candles are the theme of my personal project

This year candles are the theme of my personal project

No one seems to have enough time to do all they want these days. Life is certainly busy! Often this means the things we are passionate about get left out of our lives. As photographers we forget to take photos until the ‘right time’ – which never seems to come. I find it helps to have a personal project to keep my mind focused on the year ahead and to ensure I put time into my own personal photography.

Here are a few reasons to start a personal project…

  • It gives you a reason to take photographs
  • Your project acts to help you focus on a subject
  • When you are not inspired you can just play with project ideas
  • It helps keep you motivated
  • You build up a library of images on one subject
  • You get to know the techniques of that subject really well
  • Your creativity is given the chance to explore something in depth
  • When the project is done you could run an exhibition for family or friends
  • You can be inspired by trying out the project theme in new places
  • It gives you a reason to look at other peoples work on the subject
  • Find out how great photographers have photographed your subject

There are many more reasons to do a project, these are just some of the ones that have motivated me in the past. If you take a few minutes and write out a few ideas why you want to do a project it will help you commit to the subject.

Your project is your own, and only you can determine what direction it takes you. So it helps to plan it out a bit. Maybe set yourself some goals. Here are a few examples…

  • I will finish my project when I have 100 quality images of my subject
  • A quality image is one that I am proud to show family and friends
  • I aim to improve my use of Depth of Field and bokeh on this project
  • I will aim to take at least 50 photographs of my subject per week

Of course you don’t need to follow my examples. You might think 100 exhibition quality images is too much for the time you have. Great, set the project up to suit you. You may not want to improve your use of bokeh (that lovely blur of bright objects in an out-of-focus background). Why not concentrate on another technique, say, greater use of deep shadows as a compositional feature. Anything, especially things you want to improve.

A personal project is a great way to help integrate your photography into your life. If you choose a subject that can be found in everyday life then you can do some shots in your lunch break or whilst commuting. In short it gives you a reason to keep taking photographs. That’s a good thing right? More of what you like and enjoy will help reduce stress and increase the fun in your life.

Having an exhibition or promising a presentation for someone is a good way to tie up the end of your project. It gives you something to aim for. However, it can be fun to just produce a web gallery, or publish a sequence of the shots on YouTube. You never know it might go viral!

In the first part of this year I am going to make ‘Candles’ a personal project. You can start a personal project any time and for any duration. So get going on it as soon as you can!

By Damon Guy (author and Photokonnexion editor)

Damon Guy - Netkonnexion

Damon Guy (Netkonnexion)

Damon is a writer-photog and editor of this site. He has run some major websites, a computing department and a digital image library. He started out as a trained teacher and now runs training for digital photographers.
See also: Editors ‘Bio’.

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The start of a new year!

January 1st 2012 - Pretty cold day for the annual charity swim in Cornwall

Pretty cold day for the annual charity swim in Cornwall

Happy New Year to all my readers! May this be a happy and productive year for you all… I have just got back from taking photos of a “New Year Swim” event. It is a fun thing to do and gives you the chance to flush out the cobwebs from a New Years Eve party!

This morning it was wet and windy on the beach. Photography was difficult. But the swimmers were keen and ready to go. Most of them were there to raise money for charity. Hundreds of spectators were there to support them and watch the fun. It was pretty cold. So it was a bit of a challenge just to get to the beach! With so many spectators there is little chance the swimmers were going to wimp out once they arrived. Everyone wears fancy dress to make it more fun!

I did this swim myself five times. I have to say it was fun – but also bitterly cold some years. Well, you have to get your kicks somehow. In recent years I get my kicks photographing these events. Some of the shots are rough and ready – especially when the weather is poor. Here are a few photos of the event from the last few years…

Knights in waiting for the swim

Knights in waiting for the swim

Even cowgirls go for the charity swim

Even cowgirls go for the charity swim

The vikings invade again

The vikings invade again

The lifeguards like to play too...

The lifeguards like to play too...

Charity group before the swim

Charity group before the swim

A flight of swimmers preparing for the water

A flight of swimmers preparing for the water

When the horn sounds everyone rushes to the sea for the swim

When the horn sounds everyone rushes to the sea for the swim

Mad Hatter character ready for the swim

Mad Hatter character ready for the swim

Keystone Cops get the criminals

Keystone Cops get the criminals

Some people find it a bit cold in there - it was about four degrees on that day!

Some people find it a bit cold in there - it was about four degrees on that day!

Coming out of the water everyone looks less enthusiastic

Coming out of the water everyone looks less enthusiastic

Some of the costumes are really well done

Some of the costumes are really well done - there are prizes for the best individual costume and the best group costumes

It's pretty cold getting changed on the beach after the swim

It's pretty cold getting changed on the beach after the swim

After the swim everyone gets warmed up and participants get hot soup

After the swim everyone gets warmed up and participants get hot soup

Have a great year everyone! Take lots of pictures…

Crop your pictures to make your point

The majority of photographers want other people to see their photographs. When people do see your pictures do they get the point?

When I entered my first photography competition at a camera club I was shocked at how unimpressed the judge was with my favourite digital photo of the time. The picture did not impress [see below].

Dunes in South Wales at sunset

I was shocked at what a poor mark I got from the judge...

I was proud of the shot. So why didn’t the judge get it? Well, his analysis was clear. Lots of orange up top. A bit hackneyed. No interest. Lots of black down in the bottom half of the shot. No content there, no interest. An interesting dune line breaking up the shot with some great silhouettes of people and grass tussocks. Overall, little interest.

I had broken one of the fundamental requirements of photography – ‘keep it to the point’. The point was the wonderful silhouette and the family standing atop the dune enjoying the moment made the shot and gave the human interest. However, with all the orange above and the black below the shot lost its impact. A simple picture ruined because of the large and distracting orange and black areas that did not show anything.

In another competition, sometime later, I re-presented this picture. I had changed the shot. It was cropped (cut into a new shape) to remove the uninteresting parts. There was a thin orange band above the dune, and a thin black band of dune below the dune-skyline. The overall shot was cropped as a letterbox format – long and thin. The figures were larger in the frame and the contrast of black and orange broken by the family on the skyline presented a strong contrast. This all made for an interesting and enjoyable reminder of a wonderful moment in a timeless landscape.

Sunset on the dunes in South Wales - cropped

The cropped picture made the point and had more impact

The first presentation failed because the point was lost in large areas of no interest. The second time this picture was judged it received a great response. I had focussed the viewer’s eye on a long thin box. This draws the eye down the length of the box. The main line in the shot was a distinct and interesting one that portrayed an enjoyable story. The colours and setting gave the viewer great feelings of peace and serenity.

I made the point in my second shot because of the crop. In all other respects the photograph was unchanged. I used the line of the crop to emphasis the important features of the picture. I did that at the same time as removing unnecessary parts of the photo.

In all your shots, try to compose so you make a point. If it is not completely achievable in the frame of your shot, use a crop to deepen the emphasis. Cropping is probably the simplest post-processing method and it is one that can have the most impact if done right. Learn to crop well and you may find you need do no other processing – at least for some of your shots.

By Damon Guy (author and Photokonnexion editor)

Damon Guy - Netkonnexion

Damon Guy (Netkonnexion)

Damon is a writer-photog and editor of this site. He has run some major websites, a computing department and a digital image library. He started out as a trained teacher and now runs training for digital photographers.
See also: Editors ‘Bio’.

Can you write? Of course you can!
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The camera lies – find out how

Festive lights bokeh • The camera lies - every shot

The soft and homely blur caused by lights being out of focus is called bokeh. It is one of the many ways your shot can show something completely different to the actual scene.

The famous saying goes, “The camera never lies”. In fact every photo is a type of lie. The content of the shot is a pretty good representation of the scene. Is the final photograph really as would be seen by the eye? No, the camera lies. Let’s look at the facts.

The camera has questionable vision

Everything we see is light that has bounced off something. Once light passes into the eye it is focused on the retina. The retina signals the brain which builds a picture up. The brain interprets the scene.

The camera works the same way. Reflected light passes through the various lenses in the camera and hits the sensor. The sensor is stimulated to send signals to the processing chip. The chip compiles a picture of the intensity of the various signals. It outputs the result in a file that our computers use to construct a picture.

During this process in the eye, and the camera, there are a number of intervention points. These are where the scene is changed. This is where the camera lies.

How the camera lies

Modern ‘lenses’ are actually many individual lens elements working together. Any individual glass lens suffers from a number of failings normally referred to as aberrations. To correct these aberrations takes more lenses. One popular lens, the Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8 L IS II USM Lens External link - opens new tab/page is made up of 19 groups of lenses! This superb lens is probably one of the most popular Canon ‘L’ lenses. The excellent sharpness and low distortion produces wonderfully faithful representations of the scene. However, no matter how good a lens, there are shape distortions, colour (chromatic) aberrations and distortions of the symmetry of the lens. Without getting too technical about it lenses distort reality. What is in front of the lens is changed by the time the light reaches the sensor. Slightly less light, slightly changed shape, slightly different colour… a different scene.

Theoretical Lens diagram • The lenses change the scene. The camera lies.

Click image to view large
Generalised photographic lens layout showing the principle features.
Lenses change the scene the eye sees. The camera lies. What you see is not what you get in the final picture.

On your whim, or control, you set your camera to a fine balance of shutter speed, sensor sensitivity and aperture. There are millions of ways to capture a scene. Under or over expose, blur, bokeh, filter… all can radically or minutely change the way the camera records the light falling on the sensor.

That is not the end of it. The code that runs in the cameras chips and the conversion to an image is another point of change. The ‘RAW’ image, the native data format of your manufacturer, is pretty much as you would get the data direct from the sensor. Change that file format to .JPG format and you have a translation from one type of data to another. You may change the RAW file in post processing. If you don’t make the change the camera does. The result either way is clear. There is a difference in the resultant file from input to output. The camera lies through its lens and the computing it does.

Beyond the camera lies

The next point of change is in your computer. The computer puts the files onto the screen. The screen renders the file as instructed by the computer. However, every screen has its own interpreter. This makes the rendering dependent on the screen makers electronics, code and colour maps for the screen. This is yet another point of change.

That is not all. Printing, file editing and even transmission over the Internet can all take their toll on your files. Each process changes the current file state and produces something different. After a while the file that you finally end up with is somewhat changed. It is not as it was seen in front of the camera when the image was made. Maybe you don’t see a great difference. Once your eye learns to spot the changes they are in plain sight.

What we see in the final print, screen rendering or projection is different to the original scene. However, it is the fun and craft of photography to make that new view what you want it to be. This is not new or exclusive to modern digital photography.

Every camera and photo-process changes the original scene. When you make a photograph it is made by the manipulation at all those intervention points.

A new synthesis

Photography is about making a new synthesis from light collected when the shot was taken. Get to know your camera and all its controls. You will be able to make your picture what you want. Remember, the camera lies. The master photographer is a master of change – not of capture.

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Damon Guy - Netkonnexion

Damon Guy (Netkonnexion)

Damon is a writer-photographer and editor of this site. He has run some major websites, a computing department and a digital image library. He started out as a trained teacher and now runs training for digital photogs.
See also: Editors ‘Bio’.
By Damon Guy see his profile on Google+.

Composition – Time…

Light is one of the critical features of our capture. Time is also essential. Our picture is the result of a time-line. It’s a creation of the moment chosen to take the shot. The capture distils the events from a line of moments before the button press. It tells the story.

Spring Sunset • Some images appeal to something deep in us. Time is a part of that.

• Spring Sunset •
Some images appeal to something deep in us. Time is a part of that.

Primal drives are one type of story

Sometimes a picture is not special by virtue of the moment. A deep orange sunset sparks something in our primal memory. The power of the wave pounding the shore is as enduring as the rock of ages. We recognise these ideas. We replay them regularly through the images of popular culture. They are special because they are timeless. They touch something deep in our psyche. We see the same timelessness in manifest terror or nightmares.

Happiness or horror, timelessness and the impact of the moment come from within. They are triggered by the photograph. We recognise the point of some photographs from within the depth of ourselves. Perhaps it’s an emotional response. Maybe it’s from something deeper. In this, time is not a story. It is the depth of ourselves.

Time tells a story

If there is no primal appeal there must be something else in the image that makes the point. Time is the critical factor. Time tells a story.

When we look at an image we see a story of some sort. Sometimes it is a clear story; sometimes the story is an unsolved mystery. Whatever, we see some sort of ‘past’, ‘now’ and ‘future’ in the image. The capture of the moment is the point of the story itself. It is also the context in which it is seen. There are as many stories as there are pictures. Your picture sums up the story as you see it – at that moment. The element of time is the crux of the matter.

It’s not about the exposure

We should not confuse the element of time in the scene with the duration of the exposure. Shutter speed is important. It may affect the final artistic outcome or the way you tell the story. However, managing shutter speed is a technical decision or a tool to help the final portrayal. The story told, as a point in time, is separate from the exposure process.

Time in the picture goes beyond the moment

That moment, the capture, is not a merely an isolated incident. It is about something that is about to happen, or is happening or has happened. Do we wait for the clouds to clear, do we wait for the person walking into the frame, do we exclude them? A lot of decisions are made about the scene. Are we going to wait for the rain, do we arrive at sunset or dusk… decisions about the time of the scene. What is going to happen next? When do we take the shot? When will everything be in place?

These are questions from which we make decisions about the moment of the shot. They are also the final piece in the story we construct in the process of the shot. We make these decisions to tell the story more completely. If the finished picture is to have a powerful impact the story should be compelling and appealing.

Time is most obvious in landscapes but there’s more…

There is a story in everything. In landscapes we see the way time has taken its toll on the formation of the rock and the shape of the hills. In flowers there is the joy of the season and the renewal of life. In architecture there is the build itself and the story of the lives shared within its walls which establish is character. Natural history tells of the long drama of life. In fact the story that features in your picture is the essence of your capture. It is recognised by the viewer, even if only implicitly. It is that which creates the character and appeal of your picture.

The element of time is important to every photograph. It is essential for taking the shot – the exposure duration. It is more important as an element of composition. It is the story.

Time awareness

As one of the principle elements in the shot, time adds an essential dimension. Time needs the full attention of the photographer. When you compose your photograph make sure you feel the story. Be aware of its impact on the viewer.

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Damon Guy - Netkonnexion

Damon Guy (Netkonnexion)

Damon is a writer-photographer and editor of this site. He has run some major websites, a computing department and a digital image library. He started out as a trained teacher and now runs training for digital photogs.
See also: Editors ‘Bio’.
By Damon Guy see his profile on Google+.

Are you sacrificing image quality with a zoom lens?

Have you experienced the quality of a prime lens? Most photographers have used zoom lenses. They are popular. One zoom lens tends to suit a wide range of purposes. This gives the photographer flexibility, fewer lens changes and buying one lens to do all appears cheaper. However, zoom lenses may give you a poor or soft image. In fact overall they may give a substantially poorer performance than a prime lens for some purposes.

The key to the difference between prime lenses and zoom lenses is focal length. A longer focal length magnifies the shot but reduces the angle of view. A shorter focal length widens the view in the frame. As a result of the wider view the subject in the frame appears smaller. A zoom lens allows the photographer to change the focal length.

A prime lens has a fixed focal length. The focal length is the distance from the lens to the sensor where the focus is achieved. To change the size of a subject in your shot using a prime lens you need to move closer or further away from the subject. The fixed focal length is achieved using a simple arrangement of glass elements.

Zooms use a complex arrangement of glass elements in the lens. You zoom your lens to make the image fit the frame. As you zoom you are moving the glass elements closer or further from the sensor in the camera. The complex arrangement of lens elements allows this movement to change the focal length. To allow for the movement and to change the focal length there must be more lens elements, motors and complex control technology in the lens body.

What are the advantages of a prime lens?

It’s simple…

  • Any movement in your lens is achieved by moving parts. The more moving parts you have the more difficult it is to get a sharp image. In zooms the complex technology can mean quality is lost. Prime lenses are typically much sharper than zooms.
  • Composing an image is more immediate when you have to walk around to fit the shot in the frame. Most photographers think more carefully about composition when you use a prime.
  • Prime lenses tend to use fewer lens elements than a zoom. Fewer lens elements mean it is easier to maintain sharpness.
  • Each glass lens element tends to absorb or scatter light. Less glass reduces this light loss.
  • Fewer glass elements in the prime lens means it can be a lot lighter and more compact than a zoom.
  • Fewer elements in a lens mean that optical and colour distortion is reduced.
  • Prime lenses are often cheaper because they have less complex glass elements, motors and technical equipment in them.
  • Primes are often of simple construction. It is easier to give them wider aperture as a result. A wider aperture gives superior low-light performance and shallower, more controlled depth of field.

So, the zoom lens you have may give you more flexibility with your shots. However, it may be compromising the quality of the shot.

Prime lenses give great results and are fun when composing a shot. It is worth trying one out. As with all lenses you need to practice with them before you will get the best from your lens.