What beaches looked like 100 years back

Here are some photographs taken on beaches a 100 years back:

Click here to see them all (via Buzzfeed)

Hasselblad announces the 200 megapixel camera

Photokina, which is being held in Cologne between the 21st and 26th of September,  is the one of the leading international trade fair for the entire photographic and imaging sector. All the biggest camera manufacturers present their latest toys here and this is where Hasselblad took the opportunity to introduce its 200 MP camera to the world.

Read more about the camera here.

Panasonic announces the first interchangeable 3D lens for cameras

Panasonic recently announced 3 new interchangeable lenses for the LUMIX G Series cameras, including the world’s first interchangeable 3D lens, the H-FT012 (pictured below). The lenses, which are based on the Micro Four Thirds System standard, are compact while featuring high optical performance and are compatible with Panasonic’s LUMIX DSLMicro cameras including the new LUMIX DMC-GH2.

The interchangeable 3D lens LUMIX G 12.5mm / F12 (H-FT012) features 2 optical systems installed within the diameter of the lens mount, creating stereo images from the left and right lenses which are then processed with a 3D image processing system.

“Panasonic’s delivery of the world’s first interchangeable 3D lens speaks to our commitment to leading the 3D era,’” said Darin Pepple, Senior Product Manager, Imaging, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company. “Consumers can now enjoy shooting high-quality photos in 3D with this compact lens, from landscapes to people, while watching them back later on their 3D-capable VIERA televisions at home.”

How to choose a tripod for your Digital SLR

You have bought your Digital SLR, your lenses and now you are now wondering if you should invest in a tripod. Our advice is if you are serious about your photography, you should get one. Here are some situations that will have you appreciating a tripod:

1. Heavy Lenses: When you start using tele-zoom lenses, you will realize that those monsters are quite heavy to hold steady and shoot without a shake. Tripods will help you shoot sharper pictures with the tele-zoom lenses.

2. Low Light Shots: When shooting in low light, the shutter speed is usually slowed down and slower shutter speeds require a steadier hand while shooting. With tripods, you can eliminate almost all the shake and get sharper pictures in low light.

3. Landscape Photography: For landscape photography, it is recommended that you use a tripod since you will be using a small aperture to get the required depth of field and smaller apertures require longer exposure times.

Now that we have looked at some of the situations that will warrant a tripod, lets look at how to choose a good tripod.

1. Check the stability of the tripod: Fully extend the legs of the tripod, put some weight on the top and check if it shakes. Since the main objective of the tripod is to hold the camera steady, you should look for a tripod that does not shake at all.

2. Check the height of the tripod: Choose a tripod that can offer your preferred low height as well as go just a little above your line of sight.

3. Choose the right head for your needs: Tripods come with two different kinds of head – Pan/tilt and ball head. Pan/tilt heads are usually used for shooting video since  they provide the ability to lock each axis (tilt, pan, and roll) independently.

4. Quick Release heads: Look for a tripod with a  quick release head. The quick release feature lets you switch quickly between shooting using a tripod or shooting by hand. For shooting still pictures, you do not need that kind of control and therefore, a ball head is preferred. However, with today’s DSLRs offering HD video, you might be better off getting a Pan/Tilt head.

Do you have any other suggestions for choosing a tripod?

Image Credit: Koshyk

Exposure Compensation

Exposure Compensation is a method for adjusting the exposure which is indicated by the internal photographic exposure meter in your camera. There are two common situations when you will want to use Exposure Compensation.

1. When the setting is a little dark or you have dark objects around the subject, the internal photographic exposure meter compensates for all the dark objects and reduces the shutter speed. With a slow shutter speed, you will most likely get a blurred image unless you are using a tripod. It is at this time that you want to compensate the exposure by dialing into the negative side.

2. You will also want to compensate in the opposite situation as well. When the setting is very well lit, you would dial into into the positive side of the exposure to get a slower shutter speed. A good example would be when you shoot in winter and have your subject around snow.

How do you use Exposure Compensation?

Check this video to compensate using the Canon XSi/450 D

Check out this video to compensate using  Nikon 300Ds

Image Credit: tibchris

Do I really need a Lens Hood?

Lens Hoods have 2 main advantages:

1. Lens Hoods shield yours lens from direct sunlight or other bright lights that might fall directly on the lens and in turn, cause flare. By reducing the contrast and creating flare, your pictures will have much richer colors and deeper saturation. Flower shaped lens hoods are often used on zoom lenses as a normal lens hood will block the field of view on certain zoom settings.

2. Lens Hoods also protect your lens. As the hood does project from the lens, it does make the actual lens difficult to reach. This helps reduce the accidental fingerprint on the lens or even the accidental drop which could result in the need to replace the lens. And if you are a serious photographer, you know how expensive that is!

The only time you do NOT want to use a Lens Hood is when are you are shooting Macro or when are you are shooting using the on-camera flash. In these cases, the Lens Hood can obstruct your shot.

Check out the latest Canon Lens Hoods here and the latest Nikon Lens Hoods here.

Here is an interesting video on Lens Hoods by Jared Polin

Image by: nlewis039

How to use a Circular Polarizing Filter (CPF)

I was looking online on how to use a Circular Polarizing Filter (CPF) and I came across this good explanation:

For the level best polarization effect, the sun should be at a right angle to your subject. That means when you’re facing your subject ideally, either your left shoulder or your right shoulder will be pointing at the sun. The polarizer will still work if the sun is at less than 90′, but to a lesser degree. It also works well when the sun is directly overhead, though it won’t have much of an effect on the sky when the sun is that high.

Sometimes the polarizer effect will be subtle, and you won’t always notice a dramatic darkening of the sky, but if you look closely you may find bright reflections being reduced and/or eliminated on leaves, rocks, etc. If you’re not seeing any effect, then you can simply remove the polarizer and gain a stop or more in shutter speed if you need it.

The nice thing about a polarizer is that you see exactly what it going to do as you rotate it while looking through the viewfinder. It’s either doing something, or it isn’t. So you don’t really have to remember to have your subject 90′ off axis to the sun though you can use that knowledge to reposition yourself and/or the subject if you want to achieve the maximum polarization effect.

Image Credit: Beverly & Pack

Why are faster lenses sharper in the telephoto range?

Someone asked this question in a forum and here is a great answer that will be helpful to all of us!

“First off, lenses are designed for their specific maximum apertures. A 300mm f/4 is not a stopped down 300mm f/2.8. It was designed as a f/4 from its inception.

Virtually all lenses are sharpest at about two stops down from wide open. This is because lenses are designed for a range of apertures, and anything with any kind of range in its design must have compromises. The 300mm f/2.8, therefore, is sharpest at about f/5.6, and the 300mm f/4 at about f/8.

In theory, a lens could be designed with a single aperture and maximum sharpness at that aperture. Such a lens, however, would be severely limiting in its use. Mirror lenses have this drawback—this plus the fact that they are almost always use very poor glass to keep the price down.

Secondly, large aperture lenses require very primo front elements. These elements are the most critical elements in most lenses, and cannot tolerate aberations. After all, the light passes through these elements first, and, if distorted, remains distorted forever after. These elements are also the largest elements in the lenses. When grinding and polishing glass, the larger the diameter, the harder it is to prevent aberations from creeping in. Large aperture lenses means means super-precision grinding and polishing out to the very edges, which in turn means very high prices.

Take Canon’s 300mm “L” lenses as examples:
The EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM has a front element with an active area about 107mm in diameter and sells for about $4340 at B&H.
The EF 300mm f/4L IS USM has a front element with an active area about 75mm in diameter and sells for about $1269 at B&H.

A lot of effort goes into that 32mm difference.”

Its here – Canon’s new EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens

Canon has announced the EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS II USM lens. This is a successor to the EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM lens that was launched 2 years ago and was the go-to lens for professional shooters. This newest version offers various improvements on an already great design including a redesigned optical system and a closer minimum focusing distance.

Check out some of the reviews:

“The new EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens promises high-performance and quality plus greater flexibility in low-light conditions. A new Image Stabiliser provides the equivalent of approximately four stops of shutter speed advantage, while the minimum focusing distance has been reduced to 1.2m throughout the zoom range. Dust- and moisture-proof sealing has been extended for improved durability in challenging conditions.”

Photo Review Australia – Read their full review here

“Canon has improved the optical performance by redesigning the internal elements, incorporating a fluorite element and a fifth UD element to help minimize secondary chromatic aberrations and produce better image quality with improved contrast and resolution through the entire zoom range. The new lens design features improved auto focus speed due to a new focusing algorithm and a shorter minimum focusing distance of 3.9 feet (1.2 meters). It also features improved image stabilization allowing it to compensate for shutter speeds up to four steps slower than 1/focal length, a one step improvement over the previous lens model.”

Digital Camera Review – Read their full review here.

Are you planning to upgrade your lens?

How to photograph fireworks

Last year, I had gone home for Diwali and as some of you might know, Diwali is the Indian festival of lights. We were invited to a friend’s place for a fireworks display and I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to try out some fireworks photography as I was quite new to this beautiful art. Not surprisingly, I found it really difficult to find the right composition, ISO, aperture and I was basically overwhelmed as I was trying to learn from the photos I was shooting while trying to get out of the way of people lighting up fireworks. Here are some of my learnings:

1. Use a tripod - This is one of the most important accessories you would need as you want the camera to be as steady as possible as you shoot fireworks. You want the only movement in the photograph to come from the fireworks itself.

2. Remote Release – Again, you do not want any shake on the camera. If you have access to a remote release cable, bring it along.

3. ISO – I tried many settings but some of the best shots I got were using ISO 100 and 200.

4. Aperture – That evening, I learned that using fast shutter speeds while shooting fireworks might give you a crisp picture but most times, that is not what you are looking for you. Slower shutter speeds will allow you to track the movement of the fireworks in the photographs and give a great story to the photograph and fill it up with beautiful light.

I hope that these tips help you when you are trying to learn how you could shoot fireworks and I would advice you to shoot as much as possible because you can study from every shot, even if its not what you wanted. Are there any tips you could offer to our other readers?

Photo by: Jule_Berlin

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