Tips for improving your POTD entries

By John DeSanto | Published: January 9, 2009 | 0 Comments

Okay, the Times Herald-Record’s Photo of the Day contest is off to a great start. We’ve received hundreds of photos from you and the pictures have really been top-notch. (So keep ‘em coming.) It’s been tough to pick a winner because the quality has been so good.

Now, here are three suggestions for improving your shots:

1) Don’t forget to crop: I’ve seen lots of pictures which could have been winners if only the photographer had taken the time to crop the image. Get yourself a basic image editor and crop that photo down to it’s core elements.

2) Keep it simple: Check those backgrounds folks. Make sure there isn’t something behind your subject that is distracting.

3) Rule of Thirds: Make sure your subject is not dead-center in the middle of the frame. Move yourself, your subject or your camera to place the subject one-third to the left or right of center.

That’s it!

Remember, at the end of the month we’ll take all the daily winners and give you the chance to vote for our January winner! So stay tuned!

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what’s all the noise?

By John DeSanto | Published: January 9, 2008 | 0 Comments

In the old days, film had it’s problems. If you tried to go too far up the ASA/ISO scale your pictures ended up with too much grain. (Grain is the tiny little spots that made up the entire image. Now we’ve got digital but quality problems still exist.

With digital, as you go up the ASA/ISO scale, your images pick up something called noise, which is tiny spots of yellow and purple in the shadow details. Too much noise can ruin your image just like too much grain could. So what to do?

Use the lowest ISO you
can, that’s what. Also, check your exposures – underexposure introduces noise,
particularly in shadow areas. If your camera can show a histogram, make
sure it isn’t all bunched up on the left hand side (indicates a lot of
dark pixels in the shot) for your picture.
Also, some cameras are more noisy than others. Particularly point-and-shoot cameras which are trying to squeeze too many megapixels into a tiny
sensor.

Keep and eye out for noise and it’ll help your pictures in the long run.

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always be ready

By John DeSanto | Published: August 24, 2007 | 0 Comments


One of the big advantages that point-and-shoot cameras have over their bigger brethren is that you’re much more likely to have one with you when the need arises. Going out to dinner? Chances are you’re much more likely to have a camera on you than I am. Mine are too big and bulky to drag along into a restaurant. (Not that I don’t do exactly that all the time.) Then, if someplace unexpected happens you can always pull out your digicam and fire away.

Take, for example, that shot over there of the moon and the jet plane. I was out photographing children sledding down a hill in Warwick, when I looked up and noticed the jet overhead. I managed to get off exactly one shot. (Fact is, I wish I had looked up maybe 20 seconds sooner.)

So that’s today’s tip: Be ready! You never know what’s going to happen!

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Defeating Red Eye

By John DeSanto | Published: July 31, 2007 | 0 Comments

We’ve all seen it before – red eyes glaring back at your from your precious little subjects. Makes ‘em look like the devil. Now, they very well be the devil, but that’s another subject. What you wanna know is how to get rid of red eyes!

1) What Causes Red Eye? - Understanding what causes red eye is actually pretty simple. When you us the flash on your camera to brighten a dark setting the light from the flash is reflected off the retina in the subject’s eyes and bounces right back into your camera. Since retina’s are red, the camera records that color and – voila! – your subject has red eye.

2) Why? The reason that red eye doesn’t occur so frequently in brighter lighting conditions is because the pupils of the human eyes aren’t open enough in such conditions to allow enough light in to reflect off the retina, so the quickest way to reduce red eye is to add some more light to the scene before taking a photograph.

3) Repositioning The Flash - The best way of removing red eye is by removing the flash from the camera. Why? Because when light is emitted from the flash and bounces off the subject’s retina a large amount of it then proceeds to travel straight back towards the flash – meaning that a lot will be heading straight for the lens on most cameras. You need to get your flash 2-3 feet away from your lens to keep red eye to a minimum, although this may not be possible on a point and shoot camera or one that doesn’t accept a mounted flash.

4) Let The Camera Do The Work - Most if not all digital cameras have several flash modes, and one of them is usually targeted towards reducing red eye. Setting your camera’s flash to the red eye mode will cause your camera to use the flash several times before actually taking the photograph. This can help to reduce red eye because it makes the irises in the eyes of your subject contract the size of the pupils, meaning less light will be reflected back towards the camera lens from the retinas. It’s not a fool-proof method, but it does usually reduce red eye significantly and it may be the only way out if you have a point-and-shoot..

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Memory Storage

By John DeSanto | Published: July 28, 2007 | 0 Comments

A memory card is a big part of  any digital camera’s system. After all, it’s the thing that holds the pictures. Digital photo files are big! A high-resolution photography might contain as much as 10 megabytes of storage space within a camera. In the past 10 years, digital files have become dramatically larger as camera manufacturers have fought to produce machines with larger and LARGER file formats.

How large a memory card you purchase depends on your shooting style. If you plan on taking long photographic trips and will not be able to upload photos to your computer regularly, you’ll want several chips with large memory capacity. (2gb and 4 and 8gb cards are available.) If however, you are planning on taking pictures of your children in your home you can probably get away with smaller cards and less of ‘em. (In this case 128mb or 256mb or 512mb cards are just fine.)

At present, two major file formats rule the roost: Compact Flash (CF) cards and Secure Digital (SD) cards. You must know which card your camera will accept and purchase the proper card for your camera. Compact flash cards will not fit in slots made for Secure Digital and vice versa. Let’s take a look at both:

Compact Flash (CF) memory cards are usually found in advanced prosumer cameras and professional DSLRs. CF cards are larger, contain, in addition to a controller, several flash memory chips. (Therefore more things can go wrong.) Lexar, Toshiiba, SanDisk and Samsung are among the biggest flash memory chip suppliers

Secure Digital (SD) cards are usually found in smaller point-and-shoot cameras because they take up less space than their CF cousins and generally use less power. But this trend is slowly changing as some manufacturers are starting to use SD cards in larger cameras.

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DSLR’s Dirty Little Secret

By John DeSanto | Published: July 19, 2007 | 0 Comments

Everyone wants one. The big shots have already got ‘em. But there’s something you’ve gotta know first.

Shhhhhhhsss! Don’t tell, but Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras have a problem. You know those great big camera bodies that the pros use and the amateurs slobber over. Well, here’s the skinny:

Every single time you take a lens off your DSLR body, dust gets inside the camera and settles on the Charge Coupled Device (CCD) that captures your pictures. This dust will eventually begin to degrade your images. Now you may not notice it at first because of all the different things going on in your pictures. But aim your lens skyward and snap off a couple of shots and you’ll instantly notice blotches in that clear blue sky. Those blotches are dust bunnies residing on your sensor.

The more times your change lenses, the more dust will jump onto your sensor. You can minimize the amount of dust getting inside by pointing your camera at the ground every time you change lenses but it doesn’t eliminate the problem.

Several manufacturers make kits for cleaning off the sensor, but you really have to have nerves of steel to utilize these kits. (I mean, for heaven’s sake you’re swiping a swap covered in alcohol across your precious CCD chip trying to clean the darn thing.) You can also ship the camera body back to the manufacturer every so often for a cleaning, but they charge for the service.

So point-and-shoot owners know this: You’ve got at least one advantage over those guys with the big black cameras. You never have to worry about dust getting inside your camera.

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Wildlife Photography – Part II

By John DeSanto | Published: July 15, 2007 | 0 Comments






As promised, here is the second part of my friend Wade Dowdy’s tips and tricks for photographing wildlife:

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Wildlife Photography – Part II
By Wade Dowdy

In Part One of Wildlife Photography we dwelled on the common sense
rules of nature animal photography. And by the way, in the insect and
flora world the rules apply equally. In this part let’s talk a bit
about camera lenses and some general photographic tips.

As stated, wildlife photography is done most of the time with a SLR or
DSLR camera with a long telephoto lens. Usually 300mm is considered the
minimum for wildlife use.  Most experts use a 400-600 mm lens with a
teleconverter of 1.4 or more to get an even longer reach or
magnification. A teleconverter increases the focal length of a lens. A
300mm lens with a 2x converter becomes 600mm lens. However, the
aperture, or opening of the lens also decreases and allows less light
to enter the camera. Less light means increased shutter speeds and
smaller apertures, which for wildlife can lead to blurry images of
action. Camera shake is also magnified with converters, which is why
most photographers use a tripod with a gimbal mount to help steady the
larger lenses. (Click on photo1)

Don’t despair, many fine photographs are taken with just a 200-300mm
lens on a camera. The lighter weight of these smaller telephoto lenses
allows for easy hiking and most wildlife photographers started with a
basic 200-300mm lens on their camera. Ok, enough of the tech talk, what about the tips you say?

Tip #1 - The number
one attention getting advice for your photos I can give is to be
concerned about the eyes. Large or small, bird or mammal, reptile or
amphibian, and even insects, you should focus on the eyes. Humans react
to eyes, and they have great power over us. If we can see the eyes, we
can see the face of the critter. The eyes have it. (Click on photo 2)

Tip #2 -
Get at the same level as your subject or be the same height as your
subject. I know, hard to do with birds in trees, but some birds and a
lot of animals do live on the ground. Get low, sit in the dirt or
grass, and wait. (Click on photo 3)

Tip #3 - While you are low to the ground,
try to fill the frame with your subject, either through a longer lens
or cropping your subject. Get the subject as large as possible in your
viewfinder, but remember to not harass the wildlife. (see part 1)

Tip #4 -
Don’t make any sudden movements or motions. Wildlife spooks easily and
sudden motions will make the creatures scatter. Consider wearing
neutral colored clothing that matches the vegetation. Camouflage is
great but not needed. Use your car as a blind.  Many refuge locations
have roads that allow taking photos from the car and the birds and
animals are not skittish until you step out of the car. The elk photo
was taken that way, moments later someone else got out of their car to
get closer with their small camera and the animal woke up and took off
through the woods as soon as they stepped out of the car. (Click on
photo 4)

Tip #5 -
Keep the sun at your back as much as possible, this will help
illuminate your subject and make it easier to meter and expose your
subject. White birds are particularly difficult to meter correctly as
are eagles against a blue sky. Many times the whites are blown out. I
won’t get into to much technical details on this but if the whites of
the bird seems bright and over exposed, adjust your EV down -.5 to -1.0
and if the white bird seems grey in color and not white try bumping the
EV up +.5 to +1.0 The key is to get naturally looking whites. (Click on
photo 5)

Tip #6 -
In closing, shoot early and late in the day for the best light and one
final great secret – try to get youngsters in your shot, nothing
creates that “awww isn’t that cute” like a youngster next to a parent.
(Click on photo 6) But remember those protective mothers, especially
the ones with four legs and sharp claws. Good luck.

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Wildlife Photography – Part I

By John DeSanto | Published: July 14, 2007 | 0 Comments




I don’t know nuthin’ about wildlife photography but my good friend Wade Dowdy knows a ton. So I asked him to type a few words on the subject. Take it away, Wade:

—————————————————————-

Wildlife Photography – Part I
By Wade Dowdy

Wildlife photography is comprised of several different groups. The two primary groups are birds and everything else.  Everything else consists of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. We won’t include insects, or flora. Their photography methods are unique and generally not included in the term wildlife.

Wildlife or non-captive animal photography can occur in all aspects of our world, including your own backyard. Taking shots of your rabbits, squirrels and backyard birds is a great way to dive into the world of wildlife photography. (Click on Photo #1)

Wildlife photography is generally the realm of the DSLR camera and usually requires a longer telephoto lens. One other reason for the DSLR is the shutter lag associated with the point and shoot cameras. Before we dive in to the specifics of wildlife photography in part 2, we need to talk about the accepted rules and procedures for photographing wildlife. 

Rule #1 The most important rule, no photograph is important enough to harm and harass the wildlife. Chasing any animal/bird down the lane or woods creates stress, may overheat the animal, and could change their behavior with drastic and deadly results. Even staying your distance, large numbers of individuals in proximity to the nest can create stress. The group of photographers in the photo above is over a hundred yards away from an eagle’s nest. (Click on Photo #2)

Rule #2 Stay back from nests and dens. If the animal flies or runs off, you are too close. Back up and try again but this time farther away. Do not chase the animals. There is a reason wildlife photographers use long telephoto lenses. (Click on Photo #3)

Rule #3  Always stay on marked trails or areas where the public is allowed.  Don’t trespass or cross a fence to get the photograph. Be courteous to others, and follow all rules of the park, refuge, and land owner. Ask permission before venturing onto private property.

Rule #4 Do not approach animals that are large and dangerous or that would not normally allow a close approach. They may be ill, have rabies, or may just sometimes be mean. In Yellowstone National Park folks have been gored and killed by Bison and Elk. If a coyote or cute fox is allowing you to get really close they probably are ill.

Rule #5 Learn about the animal you intend to photograph, it’s patterns and habitat, and when it is usually active.  The pelicans in the photo always preened on this specific log after they fed in the mornings, knowing this, you can time where to be at the right time. (Click on Photo #4)

Rule #6 Be out in the field and spend the hours observing your wildlife. Those hours will be the early morning and in the evening because wildlife is most active in the morning and evening. A good wildlife photographer will get dirty at times, don’t fret it, wear appropriate shoes and clothes. Don’t forget to bring the bug spray!

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Photographing Waterfalls

By John DeSanto | Published: July 5, 2007 | 0 Comments




Taking pictures of waterfalls is a lot like taking pictures of fireworks: You need a tripod and a long exposure to capture the movement. But, unlike fireworks, you’ll be capturing these images in the daylight which means controlling the exposure is a lot more difficult.

Why? Because at night, you can simply open the shutter and let the fireworks streak across the sky and “paint” the image onto your film or CCD chip. There is very little concern about other light sources messing with your exposure.  You do essentially the same thing with a waterfall – letting the streaming water “paint” itself onto the image – but with so much available light bouncing around, it becomes difficult to get the exposure correct.

So you need to know several things:

1) Go with the lowest ISO setting possible – 50 or 100 ISO is fine.
2) Select a high f-stop number – f8 or higher – in order to make the slower shutter speeds available.
2) Try to pick overcast or cloudy days, which will also cut down on the available sunlight. If it’s a bright sunny day outside, try to wait until dusk to capture your images.
3) You’ll want your shutter speed to be at least one second or longer to capture the water movement. Using a fast shutter speed just freezes the water movement and looks unnatural.
4) If you’re planning a long hike to get to the waterfall, plan on using a lightweight tripod, it’ll ease the strain on your back.

Once you’ve lined up your waterfall, experiment with different shutter speeds. Placing your camera on shutter priority will help a lot here since you can select the shutter speed and the camera will select the correct f-stop. Take one picture at one second, one at one-and-a-half seconds, one at two seconds, until the image looks good.

You’ll need to be careful about blowing out the highlights and losing detail in the white areas of the flowing water so that’s why you’ll take lots of pictures at different shutter speeds. You can then select the best ones once you get back to your computer.

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Five tips for Sunrise and Sunsets

By John DeSanto | Published: July 2, 2007 | 0 Comments




Okay, it’s summer. Which means vacation. Which means plenty of time to
take pictures. Which means you will encounter a sunset or two
during this time. So you need to be ready. As an aside, sunrise and
sunset photos are considered to be photographic cliches. Everyone does
‘em and the good photographers avoid ‘em and sneer down their noses at
them.  But that shouldn’t bother you. You’ll be able to improve your
shots by following a few simple rules.

1) Silhouette Something:  Put something in the foreground to create interest, such as:

A person or group of people
A fence
A sailboat (if you’re near a lake or beach)
Trees or shrubs
A big bridge
A sea monster (any size)

2) Break the Rules: You can toss out the ‘rule of thirds’ here. You want the sky to dominate the scene, so consider lowering the horizon line to show the changing colors of the sky. Move things around. But, for heaven’s sake, don’t “tilt” the horizon line.

3) You Need Patience: Get there early and stay late. The difference between taking great sunrise and sunset photography and shooting only so-so photos is the patience the photographer has in staying through the entire event.

4) Know Thy Location: Scout out an area during the day when you have plenty of time, not while you are scrambling with the kiddies during the day. You don’t want to be waiting for a check at a restaurant during the peak sunset period.

5) Risky Business: These types of shots don’t have to be horizontal. Take a couple turning your camera 90 degrees to the side to get even more of the sky or landscape in your photograph. Use a wide angle lens instead of a normal lens to get even more sky. Use a tripod when possible. Set it up before the sun starts to rise or set and you’ll be able to take very clear, crisp photographs.

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