Archive for Photography Infos
May 7, 2008 at 4:11 am · Filed under Photography Infos
The sight of early morning snow, the shimmering frost in the trees, your sister falling off in your snow filled front yard and your stunning snow angel, don’t you ever wish you could just capture that moment right away and place them in your computer desktop? Right, sounds easy but for an amateur photographer this may sound too challenging and laborious. But thanks to the dawn of digital photography and winter photography need not be exclusive to the professional anymore.
You have to remember a few pointers though. Winter shooting can be tricky as majority of the landscape is white and the background is bright. When shooting a snow filled area, the brightness of the snow may often cause your digital camera to somewhat underexpose the scene, thus making the snow to look gray. To correct this, you might have to increase your exposure compensation so the whiteness of the snow can be appropriately captured. The time of the day you took the picture can also have an effect in your image. So if you want cooler shots shoot closer to midday but if you want warmer shoots, shoot early in the morning or late in the afternoon.
Although traditional photography belief tells us that using flash outdoor is not necessary but if you are shooting a winter photograph, using a flash can bring out details and highlights that might not be captured without it. However, if you are shooting close shots avoid using flash as much as possible as the reflection can greatly reduce any detail in your photo.
With the flexibility of processing available with digital cameras, you have better choices when in comes to choosing the finished format of your photograph. There is really nothing to lose to trying winter photography. You might even be surprised with the images that you captured. Once you have become accustomed to winter photography and have been familiar with the different techniques, you will find that winter is one of the best times of the year to go out there, take photos and make use of your digital camera. You will be surprised to see that the final results are worth the hassle.
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April 21, 2008 at 8:51 pm · Filed under Photography Infos
If you read around you will find that lots of people natter on about “image quality”. In particular, they go on and on about how to improve the quality of an image.
They will talk about lenses, sensors, light sources, manipulations and other things that you or I wouldn’t know a great deal about.
Ignore these people and don’t let these mundane arguments put you off taking superb images that anyone with a modicum of common sense can easily do.
The quality of your image will be enhanced by:
- making sure your camera is in good condition
- composing as best you can
- avoid extremes of light and dark in your photographs
- keeping your lenses clean
- focussing accurately
- avoid using the extremes of aperture settings
- choosing the correct shutter speed for your subject
- avoid camera shake
- use the appropriate light source
- avoid colour casts (use correct white balance)
- avoid very long shutter speeds
Don’t let others convince you that you need a camera with huge numbers of megapixels - 3 or more megapixels will produce great images. My own compact camera is a 2 megapixel Canon which has always been more than enough.
Your image quality is also dependent upon correctly calibrating your computer screen, the type of printer you have and the paper you use to print on. But if you focus on the picture-taking stage then you will be well on the way to producing great images.
Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com.
April 8, 2008 at 10:11 pm · Filed under Photography Infos
I suppose we all know that the chemicals for processing B&W Photographic prints should be used at 20C. The manufacturers of the various papers and chemicals say so. On a cold winter night, with the darkroom in a tin shed and the outside temperature down to -2C this is not so easy to achieve.
Cold developer works slower and hot developer works faster. I’ve been told that incorrect developer temperature affects the image contrast but haven’t found this to be the case with resin coated, multigrade paper. Depending on the brand, the paper fogs in the developer at around 35C to 40C. So anywhere in the range 25C to 35C will be fine for the developer, stop bath and fixer.
Fan Heater Not Suitable for Darkroom Heating
In times gone by I used a fan heater which was fine for drying the finished prints hanging on the “clothes line” but created a dust problem with negatives needing to be repeatedly dusted off. Sometimes I’d get hairy strands of dust sticking to the emulsion of negatives while hanging in the darkroom to dry. Eventually I abandoned this method of darkroom heating, the hassle to keep warm being just too much.
Warming the Developer with Hot Water
To warm the developer to a quick acting temperature, I have for some time used a second, larger tray of hot water with the developer tray sitting in it. Whenever the water feels cool to my fingers it’s time to add another jug of hot water, until after a few top-ups, the developer tray starts to float, at which time I tip out the water and start again with more hot water. This method has served me well for 15 years or so and is a good way to go in a low budget darkroom.
Electric Bar Heater for Darkroom Heating
Over recent times I’ve used a bar heater on the darkroom wall. With some care, given the colour and low level of light, the paper has been unaffected by this darkroom heating.
But today I just couldn’t stand the fiddling with jugs of hot water any longer. I unscrewed the bar heater from the wall and placed it on the darkroom floor, facing upwards, under the wet bench, to heat not only the darkroom space but also the chemicals.
Before long the underside of the bench was quite warm and the developer, at a constant 25C, required no fiddling. Although the darkroom is poorly insulated, the space soon warmed up to a comfortable temperature. So this is now my method of darkroom heating.
Should you decide to go this way also, just be sure you don’t set fire to the place.
Laurie McArthur is a wilderness landscape photographer based on the New South Wales Far South Coast, Australia.
Laurie’s images may be viewed at http://www.southimage.net/
