The Three Factors of Light in Photography By Brett Gaine

If you have just bought a DSLR camera, then it is likely you are more serious about your photography than most others. To get the most out of your camera, it is very useful to know and understand the basic physics behind it, what affects certain settings of your camera have and so on. Photography is a rewarding hobby and profession, but it is difficult to master, and only with plenty of practice and no how will you get anywhere with it. So, the first thing you should have bought with your DSLR is an SD card, a skylight filter for your lens (for protection), and a spare battery.

There are three very important principles that you must understand, and these are common to every digital camera. These principles are essential to allowing light into your camera for capture of your shot, and used incorrectly will lead to some very wild results. Therefore, even for a beginner, I would suggest ignoring all automatic and help settings on your camera, and jumping at the deep end and setting it to M, for manual. It's involved at first, but in the long run you will learn and understand how your camera works much quicker. The three factors affecting light into your camera are:

1. ISO

In old film cameras, this dealt with the speed of the film. For bright sunny days, you would want to use 100 ISO film. For inside photography, you would need 400 ISO. It is similar in a digital camera, but it now determines the sensitivity to light of the sensor (which has replaced the film). In basic terms, if you are shooting outside on a bright day, you should set your ISO to 100. If shooting inside, again a higher ISO is needed, but this can go well beyond 400 ISO, most cameras allow up to 1600 ISO, but some newer ones go beyond even this. This eliminates the need for flash in many situations, and although the results can be grainier, modern technology is even eliminating this.

2. Aperture

The aperture is essentially the window into your camera. It is a hole that can be increased or decreased depending on what conditions you are shooting in and the amount of light. It controls the amount of light entering the camera. Basically, if you are shooting a landscape, you will need a small hole (high f stop number), because there will be a lot of light. If shooting a portrait, then a large hole (small f stop number) is needed. Aperture also controls depth of field.

3. Shutter Speed

The third and final way to control light entering the camera is through the shutter. This is the length of time the shutter is open. In basic terms, if you want to freeze action crisply and cleanly, then use a very fast shutter speed. If you want to show motion and blur, then a slower shutter speed should be used (with the aid of a tripod).

All three affect each other, and for a properly exposed photo, if you change one, you must change the other. Practice and taking note of your settings will help you to understand this better.

Getting To Know An Intervalometer

The world indeed is a beautiful place that has numerous beautiful sights, some natural while some man-made. With photography it is now possible to capture this beauty with a camera.

With the advent of technology, photography enthusiasts have been able to improve the quality of the pictures they click. One such device that helps them to do so is an intervalometer, which is basically a device plugged into a camera for counting intervals of time. In photography time is of essence. The quality, creativity and aesthetics of a picture depend on whether a picture was taken at the right moment. A delay of even a split second may cause a photographer to fail in capturing the right moment. These devices are usually used to indicate or signal other devices to start an operation at specific time intervals. For instance an intervalometer might activate another device after every thirty seconds. It finds ample application in various fields that even includes military operations.

As far as photography is concerned, these devices are mainly used for bringing out exposures, usually in a time lapse series. Exposures are basically the quantity of light that is allowed to fall on each unit of the area of the medium being photographed, typically an image sensor or a photographic film, during the process of taking a photograph. More often than not, the objective of using this device is to cut down on the resources one requires to either take a picture or to post-process it, as similar photographs can be obtained by enabling the camera to take photographs as quickly or fast as possible. The use of an intervalometer allows the restriction of the photographs taken to only those which have the required content. This does away with the need for resources such as storage media like a memory card.

Apart from being used for triggering exposures, these devices are also used for various other purposes in photography. To start with, people can shoot images for stacked compositions with it. It can even be used for capturing blurred images with long shutter speed.

For taking delayed shots or even creating self portraits where the camera takes one picture every 1.5 minutes or even every second, exactly like an iPhone's Photobooth app. For that matter, as usually DSLR cameras are confined to shorter exposure of roughly thirty seconds or even less, they use an intervalometer to take shots with exposures of longer than thirty seconds, with the 'bulb' in the device. In fact, very long exposures can also be managed to take shots at night and create effects like star trails, animation or even astro-photography to showcase the effect of heavenly bodies in the sky at night like a nebula or a galaxy. These devices also find application in aerial photography which includes delaying the time required to take a picture by an unattended camera of a moving vehicle or body.

The intervalometer has, undoubtedly, improved the scope of photography by leaps and bounds

Enhance The Way You Shoot Stills With Your DSLR Rig

In recent years, many DSLR cameras featured with high-quality HD video have been launched in the market to diversify the requisites of customers looking for manual control, focusing options and extended frame rates. Digital single lens reflex cameras have transformed the approach of independent film-making. The most attractive feature of this kind of camera is its relatively low price that can probably go up if you started adding rigs. For expanding the capabilities of your camera without affecting your pocket, users can put together DIY setups for productive results. In this cutting-edge competition, it is imperative to come up with a rig that is reasonably priced and presents the same performance level.

DSLR rigs are normally used in studios or photo shops but many photographers overlook their usage because of its high price. In contrast to offline stores, many online stores can help you grab the best deal at a competitive rate. DSLR are lightweight such that they do not even move like film cameras. When hand held, digital single lens reflex cameras jitter like consumer camcorders that can instantly mark the shooter as an amateur. Customers willing to buy a DSLR rig of top-notch quality are advised to carry out a thorough research of reputed online stores. If you are working as a professional photographer, then your search for standard quality gear can be demanding.

When it comes to extremely portable and handy kit, DSLRs are most apparent and ideal choice of myriad professionals. Modern and tailored DSLR rigs are designed specifically to meet the needs of videographers willing to shoot videos. Users are required to follow a two-step process for transforming your DSLR into handheld video recorder. You cannot use viewfinder for pressing camera against your face for the third point contact that you often use for shooting stills.

Beginning from scratch to the final creation of the rig, every single step entirely depends upon the basic requirements of customers. The foremost step involved in the modification of a rig comprises of changes in offset rig to an inline rig so that users can use the external monitor. In general, these are used for creating smoothness so that every shot is incredible.

With a DSLR rig and kit, you can make your shooting and video production smooth, accurate, enduring and comfortable. Handles and rubber grips of your equipment rest your arms when you are busy in shooting commercial as well as professional movies. Depending upon the combination you choose, you can stumble upon a wide array of rigs that are very decisive for videography and photography studio.

Lifestyle Portrait Photography

Lifestyle portrait photography offers an alternative to stuffy or repetitive studio photography, allowing you to create pictures full of life and personality in your own home or a place close to your heart.

Studio portrait photography isn't for everyone - sometimes it's hard to relax in an unfamiliar environment, especially when you have an expensive camera pointed at you! Having a portrait photography session in a studio also limits you to one or two backdrops, usually plain, and a few accessories or props that can give a staged feel to your images. And if you're attempting to have photographs taken of your kids then sometimes a studio environment is a recipe for disaster: some children might be too shy in a strange new place, others will see it as an opportunity for mayhem and destruction! So what do you do when you want natural, beautiful portrait photos of you and your family but don't want to go to a studio?

Lifestyle photography is a different way to obtain solo or group portraits that removes the unfamiliar enclosed space of a studio and allows you to roam free in your own environment, making for a far more relaxed atmosphere. And the more relaxed a subject is, the better the photos! Lifestyle portrait photography means your photos are taken on location, either at your home or another place that is special to you - perhaps a holiday home, garden or park. Your shots will be unposed and natural, producing candid images that reflect your personality and mood, as well as capturing your favourite place as a backdrop.

Treasure those special moments in a place that you love and capture a moment in time in a space that means something extra special to you and your family. Indoor or out, lifestyle photography is a wonderful way to move away from traditional or classic studio photography portraits and create something freer and more fluid.

From solo portraits to families, babies to teenagers, or even your pet, lifestyle portrait photography always produces brilliantly natural images with relaxed, happy subjects. Allow your portrait photographer to snap away while you relax, play, read, eat, work or just enjoy your favourite view. You can even invite your photographer along to a special event or to visit your favourite attraction or location. From a walk in the woods to a trip to the pool, rain or shine, whatever season, lifestyle photography is a great option for people who want more than posing in front of a white background.

Rebecca Dawe Photography is an all-female team of experienced photographers working from a friendly studio in Leciestershire.

Create Bespoke Online Photo Books

The reasons for this are simple: most such books are produced to showcase the work of the world's most famous photographers, to highlight certain celebrities or to detail the splendor of a particular part of the world's landscape. Therefore the pages are made of thick, glossy, rich photographic paper and the printing techniques used are state of the art, capturing every color and every piece of light and shade of the original photograph. Over and above this, the covers and the binding will be of the very best quality, thus ensuring that the finished photo book is put together in a way which ensures it will last in perfect condition for many years to come. There's a reason why such books are often referred to as 'coffee table books' and it's that they are such objects of opulence and style that you'd be happy to have them out on show in your home.

Until now, volumes such as this have been open only to professionals such as leading photographers, but now the opportunity to create online photo books which showcase your own favorite images to the same dazzlingly high standards is open to absolutely anyone who has a large enough collection. One of the chief consequences of the widespread switch to digital photography, and of the fact that virtually everyone's digital phone now doubles as a high quality camera, is the fact that more or less everyone finds it easy to amass a very large collection of digital images. Once you've captured these images - usually chronicling the lives of family or friends or the highlights of special moments in your life - it's only natural to want to keep them in a manner which is safe yet accessible and even, in the case of your very best shots, to want to show them off. In the past, this would have meant having your favorite photographs printed and then sticking them bodily onto the pages of photo albums - whilst these may well have been much treasured possessions, due to the contents, they were also bound to be rather scruffy and not exactly durable.

You no longer need to use some lightweight scrapbook, however, since you can have your photographs collected in bespoke, luxury quality photo books. The only step that you need to take to make this happen is to choose the images you wish to use and then upload them to the relevant website. You may wish to collect your favorite family shots, the images from a special day such as a wedding or long selection of shots to form a 'This is your Life' style volume. Whatever the subject matter, once they've been uploaded, they can be turned into a personally designed book using software which has been built to move through the process one simple step at a time, meaning that no experience whatsoever is required. The size, shape and layout of the pages can be modified and the material and appearance of the covers chosen, and the finished result will be produced to the standard found in bookshops. It's not just books, however, since you can make your own photo greeting cards which will be more than a match for the greeting cards available on the high street.

Digital Cameras Fit For Teenagers

What are teens made of today? Smartphones, tablets, social media, apps and not to forget, the digital camera -- these are the things most popular among them today.

With technology particularly electronics and handheld devices, teenagers are never satisfied. Many follow the trend and want to update their gadgets with what's new on the market. This is true even with their digital cameras. Although they may already own a smartphone or tablet with built-in camera, they still want to have a separate photographic device.

If you're a parent or grandparent looking for something to give to your teen for his birthday or for the coming Christmas holiday, you can consider getting a digital camera. There are plenty to choose from these days and we'll help you decide on what's best to purchase. A sturdy unit is your foremost consideration. Why is this so? It's because teens are not very careful with their stuff.

Samsung MV900F

The Samsung MV900F is ideal for teens who are fond of taking photos of themselves and their friends. This camera is best for taking self portraits because it has a multi-view display. This means the entire back part of the unit can be flipped up to 180 degrees so the user can see if he or she is within frame. What's best about this Samsung model is its large display that measures 3.3 inches and has a touchscreen capability.

Another feature your teen will surely love is it wi-fi integration which allows users to easily upload photos to social media sites right from the unit. Images can be shared directly with Facebook, Picasa, YouTube and Photobucket.

Nikon Coolpix S30

The Nikon Coolpix S30 is strongly recommended for teenagers. As its name suggests, it is a cool unit that's cheap and comes in vibrant colors. This is a 10-megapixel, high definition, lifeproof camera but very affordable at just below $100. It can be used underwater and can endure small drops up to 2.6 feet.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC W650

Diehard fans of Sony products can get the Cyber-Shot DSC-W650, a pocket sized camera. This ultra compact 16-megapixel unit features a steady shot stabilization capability and Sweep Panorama shooting mode. Being a fully automatic camera, it is very simple to use your teen won't need to spend so much time studying its controls.

This can be a perfect gift for the coming holidays and won't hurt the budget-conscious parents and grandparents as this is only worth less than $150. Additionally, it is small you can put it in your pocket or small bag. Varied colors are also available for this Sony digital camera model. You can choose from silver, red and black.

Polaroid Z2300

This Polaroid model is ideal for teens who want to keep hard copies of their photos. With a built-in printer, this compact camera will allow your teen to print out 2x3 photos immediately to give out to friends as souvenirs. This 10-megapixel unit stores images on an SD card which can be uploaded online for future use. Colors available are black and white.