iPhone tripod
I stumbled upon this today while browsing casually. It's a tripod for the iPhone - or actually it's a mini tripod with an iPhone adapter. It's a fairly high want-to-have score on it, but I wonder how much I would use it in the end. Quite cool though, and it even has adjustable legs.
Old work
I promised I would write a post with some old work. So here it is. These pictures have more affection value to me than real value but nonetheless they tell my story a bit.
I have some personal bests, and these are the one with the palm tree and the one with the bridge. I'd like to think they have some artistic quality. The rest are just examples of pictures I've taken. To be fair, it could even be that some are taken by my wife.
All are taken without any kind of real stand and all are taken with the auto exposure set, if available. Most are taken with a compact that has only the auto exposure.
Anyway, enjoy.
Rookie mistake – ISO revisited
I said I may revisit the ISO topic in the future, but I didn't think it was going to be this quick.
After playing with the ISO value the other day I accidentally left it set to ISO H 1.0 (or ISO 3200.) I couldn't see that much difference between the different ISO values at that time.
Yesterday I was shooting taking pictures of my son while he was taking a bath. I don't think you can find a more cheerer picture to be honest. I set up the stand, mounted the camera, composed the picture and set focus, aperture and shutter speed. I took some shots and checked their sharpness in the LCD display. It looked good so we (me and my wife) tried getting the best smiles and cutest, funniest, coolest poses. I think we succeeded, tell by yourself.
f/5.6 - 1/80s - ISO 3200
This is just one of them, but he's just great!
Click on the picture and you'll notice all the grain. Unfortunately I didn't notice this until checking on the computer, and then the moment was gone since ages. I'm quite positive this is due to incorrect ISO setting. I'll make sure to check all settings next time.
Playing with ISO
Today I played around with the ISO speed. I used a similar set up as before but with some backlight.
Here is the set up, visually.
Taken with the DMC-FX9
The D80 has an ISO range of 100 to 3200, but in this shoot I only used ISO-100, ISO-800 and ISO-1600, using three different exposure times for each. If you're a pro, or at least somewhat into this field, you probably know what the difference will be, but me, as a complete rookie, wanted to see it and understand it.
In theory, higher ISO values can cause unwanted noise. Today the cameras are so good and the noise is very limited, but let's see if we can see any difference.
Here is the result.
A. ISO-100 - 1/100s
B. ISO-100 - 1/25s
C. ISO-100 - 1/10s
D. ISO-800 - 1/100s
E. ISO-800 - 1/25s
F. ISO-800 - 1/10s
G. ISO-1600 - 1/100s
H. ISO-1600 - 1/25s
I. ISO-1600 - 1/10s
In my opinion, there are two pictures that are OK lighting wise - C and G. Working a bit more with the shutter speed and aperture, I could probably get the picture even better, but that's not the goal of this session. So what are we interested in?
First, to see that the lighting is different. And that can quite easily be spotted, you can see it from the thumbs already.
Second we want to see if there is more noise on the pictures with higher ISO values. Zoom in and take a look... Honestly, I can't see that much of a difference. I'll probably revisit this later when I've got some more experience. Maybe it makes more difference under other conditions.
What have you learned from this? I don't know, but I've learned that the ISO value does a lot to the lighting of the picture. From reading Scott's books I've learned that I should use low ISO values, so I'll stick with ISO-100 as long as it works fine. If shooting in darker locations, e.g. indoor with bad lighting, I may go up to ISO-400 or ISO-800.
Shooting a flower
Today I had an opportunity to try out the new tripod for real. The set up was quite simple, in our living room.
Taken using the HDC-HS100
The picture says most of it, except that the background is a white wall and the lighting is in vacuum cleaning mode (that is, all possible lamps are lit.)
Let's cut to the chase. Here is the result. Aperture and shutter speed are noted. If you're interested, download the full images which contain the complete info.
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- f/4.8 – 1/3s
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- f/4.8 – 1/2s
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- f/8 – 1s
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- f/32 – 14s
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- f/5.6 – 1.8s
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- f/8 – 1.6s
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- f/36 – 30s
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- f/22 – 20s
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- f/36 – 1/60s – Flash
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- f/20 – 1/60s – Flash
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- f/8 – 1/60 – Flash
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- f/5.6 – 1/60s – Flash
The photos are only edited by cropping them and resizing them. Nothing else has been touched.
So what can we learn from this? Apart from the fact that you should use a cleansing kit to clean your lens before even thinking of shooting a picture.
There is definitely a lighting problem. Most of the pictures look quite dull, there is no vitality. I have to use a wide aperture to get a decent shot, and then some sharpness is lost. Adding the flash gives a bit more interesting picture, but the background is very dark; why I have yet to learn. If I had the gear, I would add more light.
I used "aperture priority mode" and did not play with the shutter speed at all. I guess that's why all pictures are quite alike - the D80 does a lot for me.
Not too much learned on this session, but it was a start. Below are some additional shots where I experimented with a spray bottle. A little bit more vitality perhaps. I like the first one.
How to shoot better pictures
How do you get to learn everything you need to know? To me, it all boils down to the following options:
- Practice
- Read books
- Take training courses
- Make friends with a pro
One and two are fairly easy, and cheap, you just need to find the time and the right books.
I just purchased two books on how to shoot like the pros. They're part one and two and written by top photographer Scott Kelby. They're written in a as-you-go style, or as he like to put it - as you were hiking together, and when you have a question he answers it. I haven't got through them yet (again, the time factor) but they seem quite good so far.
On three and four I'll have to take a rein check.
My next post will contain some of my old compositions, to compare with future ones. At least that's the plan.
My current gear
This is my very first blog post, ever. I actually did it, I started blogging. I guess it's a matter of definition, but anyway, now I can say I'm a blogger. There are early adopters, mainstream, late adopters - and then me. If you want to read more about me, check out the about page.
Enough said. This post is just to sum up my current gear:
- Nikon D80
- Nikkor AF 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 G DX
- Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod
- Manfrotto 488RC2 ballhead
- Nikon ML-L3, wireless (IR) remote controller
- Small Lowepro bag only fitting the SLR+lens
- Panasonic HDC-HS100 digital camcorder
- Panasonic DMC-FX9 digital compact camera
- Adobe Photoshop CS3
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.3
- A set of SD cards ranging from 1 to 4 Gb
The three items that should add sharpness into the compositions were bought yesterday. I'm very eager about taking them for a spin in the real world but work and family are getting most of my attention at the moment.
That's it. That's my first blog post. Very interesting I must say. No, but it kind of sums up my current state - a newbie on the move. Oh, and for anyone wondering why I write in English when nobody outside of Stockholm area will ever read this, my answer is - why set limitations?