Camera Lounge

Wow – a great list of top tips over at DPS

Well worth a visit

I often use my camera phone when out and about as there are plenty of occasions that I don’t have my DSLR, but feel the need to take pictures of things! Examples of this are:

Nights out on the town where a DSLR is just not a good look or a wise accessory around alcohol!

• When I am away on business and don’t have room to pack the DSLR.

• In my car and a DSLR is just not practical!

I have even featured some of these results on my photoblog. Here are a couple of tips for you to get the best out of your camera phone images.

Black And White

Some of my best results have actually been indoor night shots using the black and white effect setting. I find this gives quite a nice grainy effect that reminds me of HP5 black and white film!

Using the contrast slider or curves adjustment in Photoshop you can boost the contrast and really give the image some impact. You can even do this using the tuning settings in Picasa for even faster results.

Collages

Recently I have started using the ‘picture pile’ feature in Picasa to make a collage of camera phone images. I have found this quite successful for images that are no good on their own due to quality, but look good all chucked together to make a story.

This is really simple to do if you have Picasa, you simply select the images you want, use the hold feature if they are in different folders, and select ‘picture pile’. I find that 5 or 6 images work quite well for this. You can keep on clicking on the collage until you are happy with the layout (can take some time!).

Picasa

If you don’t already have Picasa then I suggest you download it now – it is free, and a really useful little application for importing, organizing and viewing your images. In the spirit of camera phone images, it is quick and easy to use without the need to go into Photoshop and spend hours editing! You can even preview RAW files from your DSLR!

Whilst I always prefer the quality of my DLSR images, there is always a place for my camera phone images on my photoblog, as they fulfill the ‘diary’/’snapshot’ side to my photography, where things don’t have to be perfectly composed or artistic. They are just what they are! In a way, the camera phone is the new Polaroid, or Holga, or Diana. I love it.

There is a useful article over at Digital Photography School with tips on how to take better pictures with your camera phone. This is something I myself have dabbled in and I often snap away with my mobile phone when I don’t have my clunky SLR to hand

Top Tips

• Make sure your subject is well lit
• Get close
• Keep it steady
• Edit images later
• Don’t throw away mistakes
• Avoid using the zoom
• Experiment with white balance
• Take loads of shots and experiment
• Follow rules of composition, and then break them!
• Keep your lens clean
• Observe camera phone etiquette
• Rename your images
• Use the highest reslolution on your camera

Although I agree with the point about editing the images later, personally I have had some good success using the black and white setting on my K750i. Ultimatley, it is all about experimentation and although it can be a bit hit and miss at times, it’s all good fun!

VisitDigital Photography School for more information.

There is a useful article by Steve Johnson over at Nikonians about how to shoot sports scenes like a professional.

Camera Settings

• Continuous servo autofocus
• Lock the center focus sensor
• Center-weighted metering
• Aperture priority (usually wide open)
• Possibly some negative exposure value (EV) to avoid blowing out white jerseys. Hopefully not more than -1.0.

Worth a look if you are interested in trying this sort of thing. I thought sports photography was all about shutter priority, so it was useful to see some tips pointing more towards shooting with the lens wide open and using a slighlty negative exposure to prevent the highlights blowing out.

Via Nikonians

What is ISO all about? Well, in short, ISO refers to photographic film’s sensitivity to light. Film with a low sensitivity to light (lower ISO speed rating) requires a longer exposure, and is called slow film, wherease film with a high sensitivity (higher ISO speed rating) to light can shoot the same scene with a shorter exposure and is called fast film.

These principles also apply to digital photography. You can control the ISO settings on your camera and change it shot by shot if you so desire, which is a huge advantage over the more expensive alternative with film as you would potentially have to waste film to change the setting!

When would you choose a slow speed? (low ISO rating)

• when there is plenty of available light, either from flash or sunlight
• when you are using fast shutter speeds
• when you require a sharp, non grainy image

When would you choose a fast speed? (high ISO rating)

• when there is little available light in the evening, indoors, or night photography
• when you are using slow shutter speeds
• when you require a softer, grainy image

Low ISO speeds

• 50, 100, 200

High ISO speeds

• 400, 600, 1800

As a general rule, if you are shooting outside on a bright sunny day an ISO of 50 to 200 should be appropriate. If you are shooting in lower light conditions, indoors or in the evening, a faster ISO such as 400 or higher will be appropriate in order to get the right exposure and to avoid camera shake from a slower shutter speed.
Try it at home!

Don’t take my word for it! Try the following at home:

Evening

1. Shoot an image indoors at night with the lowest ISO setting your camera has
2. Shoot the same image with the highest ISO setting your camera has

Note what happens to the shutter speed at the time, and also note how the images differ in quality when you view the files on your computer.

Feel free to leave a comment with your findings!

High Dynamic Range or HDR for short, is a technique that allows you to overlay two images to gain the maximum dynamic range in the image. You must have two or more registered images (i.e., shot using a tripod to ensure no movement of the subject), that have been taken at different F stops. By combining the images using the HDR technique you achieve an image that has the range of shadows and highlights from both the registered shots.

Not sure if that makes ANY SENSE what so ever!!! For a far better explanation, click here for a Wikipedia definition

There are a number of Software products on the market to help you create HDR images, and Adobe CS2 has this feature built in. If you have Adobe CS2, here is a great tutorial on HDR. Although it does look a bit wordy to begin with, the tutorial is excellent.

Good luck with your HDR images! I’m off to try this myself too!