With our first poll about to close in 19 hours its time to look digital versus film.
The Effort: Undoubtedly one of the biggest benefits of digital is there are no rolls of film to take down to the lab or process in the darkroom. And for dark room users the wait for negatives to dry, then make proof sheets, print and........ Our most expensive digital photograph was the first one we took! The cost per image has been drastically reduced and allows us to experiment and improve our photographic techniques quicker with the meta data supplied. This ease ways strongly for digital but.....
The Delete Button: Are some of us pressing it too early while still on camera or on the computer? Photography is part of history recording and we no longer end up with those shoe boxes of negatives under our bed and even more worrying is that many don’t understand JPEG lossy compression.
Seeing Before Clicking & Reviewing Afterwards: We can now exactly see the composition and take the time to compose our shots with digital – yes we could do that to some extent beforehand but its heaps easier with digital. After we’ve pressed that shutter button we can instantly review the image and information through the histogram and then reshoot to perfect our composition and exposure (means less to do in your photo editing software and more time shooting).
ISO Before You Go: Now this is one of the best things with digital for me. I can change the ISO from one image to the next and not have to load another roll of film or lose the photographs before I change the ISO ratting on the camera for film. Plus on higher end cameras we are now getting a much higher rating ISO then offered on film. On the negative, many digital cameras over 400 ISO in low light produce far too much noise – an improvement I think we’ll see in the not so far distance future driven by consumer demand.
Let’s All Share: Digital has made the sharing of images so much easier and quicker – someone across the other side of the world can view an image you have uploaded almost immediately. Yes you can scan images and do the same so this is not just a benefit of digital cameras but rather the technology. But hey, let’s be honest, scanning is just another job to do in our every busy life.
Keeping It For Ever: Do you archive your digital files or are you someone who has the last 6 months of shooting sitting on the card in the camera? This is still a new technology and I have had hard drive, CD, DVD, memory stick and card failures. Back up devices such as hard drives are cheap – do it and make that digital shoe box! It’s smaller than a garage which is what it would take to store those digital images on film and don’t forget if you can, to enter keywords, it makes it so much easier to search for an image.
So what’s Best? They both have their advantages and disadvantages and we have not sold off our film cameras and do not intend too. What we want from digital is the equivalent of what we got from transparency (slide) film and I believe that is sooner rather than later.
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Sunday, 5 July 2009
Holiday Photo Fun with Children
Got the kids around and all you want to do is a little photography? Why not involve them? Here’s a couple of simple projects that could get them in the mood and sort your family folder out at the same time!
Make a Family Tree: This can be as extensive or not as you like – if you have little ones just do your immediate family. Let them sort through your files (with you in attendance of course) copy and paste them into a working folder to protect those that are jpegs; resize and print.
Grab a sheet of cardboard form the local newsagent or office supply shop and stick them on drawing the tree – it’s good to get a bit creative here and believe us colouring in can give you some more free time!
Have you got teenagers you need to spend time with? Why not look at a photo collage for their bedroom wall? Let’s admit it, we most probably if we were allowed, love having posters up on our wall and teenagers today all seem to have a never ending supply of digital images on hand.
Get ready for Christmas! Did we forget to tell you it’s only next week? No seriously, why not look at preparing some items for Christmas. Easy to make are bookmarks with photographs printed on photographic material; ‘I love You’ albums of your year to date – great for grandparents and yes hate to say this year is more than half over; what about photography gift vouchers such as a photo of one of the kids washing the car (or thinking of it) and a gift voucher for Dad to wash his car during the year. Let the imagination go wild with this one and you’ll have loads of fun with the kids, no matter what age they are.
Have fun with your children over the holidays and keep that shutter finger moving!
Make a Family Tree: This can be as extensive or not as you like – if you have little ones just do your immediate family. Let them sort through your files (with you in attendance of course) copy and paste them into a working folder to protect those that are jpegs; resize and print.
Grab a sheet of cardboard form the local newsagent or office supply shop and stick them on drawing the tree – it’s good to get a bit creative here and believe us colouring in can give you some more free time!
Have you got teenagers you need to spend time with? Why not look at a photo collage for their bedroom wall? Let’s admit it, we most probably if we were allowed, love having posters up on our wall and teenagers today all seem to have a never ending supply of digital images on hand.
Get ready for Christmas! Did we forget to tell you it’s only next week? No seriously, why not look at preparing some items for Christmas. Easy to make are bookmarks with photographs printed on photographic material; ‘I love You’ albums of your year to date – great for grandparents and yes hate to say this year is more than half over; what about photography gift vouchers such as a photo of one of the kids washing the car (or thinking of it) and a gift voucher for Dad to wash his car during the year. Let the imagination go wild with this one and you’ll have loads of fun with the kids, no matter what age they are.
Have fun with your children over the holidays and keep that shutter finger moving!
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Photography, the Internet and the Privacy of Children.
The digital age is here to stay and photographs are used widely on the internet – it’s easy to see why: they sell, attract attention and contain information just for starters.
What about publishing photographs of children on the
internet:
can we or can’t we?
In many countries it is a criminal offence to; take, make, allow to take, distribute, show, possess with intent to distribute, or advertise indecent photos or pseudo-photographs of children under the age of 18 years old. And this can mean a long stint in jail!
What is an illegal image? It’s an image/s of a child or children involved in sexual activity or posed to be sexually provocative and includes images depicting erotic posing, with no sexual activity.
It is our responsibility to protect children, NO MATTER WHAT! However, what about photographers wanting to build up folios and show examples of their work in fields such as portraiture? These photographers are mostly good people, does this affect them?
Well unfortunately images can be manipulated and this is a growing concern from parents, communities, social groups and government bodies. There is the potential for abuse of any image placed on the internet. This could be by cutting and pasting images, editing images or changing the context within which the images are viewed. Changing images digitally in this way is sometimes called ‘morphing’.
For photographers wanting to display images of children here are a few things to consider:
1. Never publish a child’s name and never ever their last name or any personal information for example a street address as the home or even a letter box number in the image.
2. Talk with the parents and gain a signed form with both parents signatures that you can use the images for self promotion including your web site.
3. Make you images small so they cannot be copied and enlarged. Try saving them in a format not suitable for printing before posting.
4. Enter all your file info including copyright.
5. Consider watermarking your images.
6. Activate Right Click Disable – this stops the ability of people to “Save Picture As”of your image. Unfortunately there are ways around this but it will stop the novice.
7. Shrink Wrap your image – this puts a transparent image over the image so when they save it they save a picture of nothing.
8. Use a private gallery viewing on networking sites. Interesting enough from recent research the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Virginia, United States of America, ‘found no evidence of sexual solicitations based on photos of children or information they posted at social networking sites.
9. Always follow the grandma rule: Ask yourself if you would be embarrassed if grandma saw the photo.
10. If someone contacts you asking for more details about the child inform the appropriate authorities immediately.
Regrettably none of these suggestions will stop the war against those out there that use images of children the wrong way and for those of us that want to develop our folios it is going to get harder and harder. Please if you have any further advice I’m sure many of us would love to hear from you.
What about publishing photographs of children on the
internet:can we or can’t we?
In many countries it is a criminal offence to; take, make, allow to take, distribute, show, possess with intent to distribute, or advertise indecent photos or pseudo-photographs of children under the age of 18 years old. And this can mean a long stint in jail!
What is an illegal image? It’s an image/s of a child or children involved in sexual activity or posed to be sexually provocative and includes images depicting erotic posing, with no sexual activity.
It is our responsibility to protect children, NO MATTER WHAT! However, what about photographers wanting to build up folios and show examples of their work in fields such as portraiture? These photographers are mostly good people, does this affect them?
Well unfortunately images can be manipulated and this is a growing concern from parents, communities, social groups and government bodies. There is the potential for abuse of any image placed on the internet. This could be by cutting and pasting images, editing images or changing the context within which the images are viewed. Changing images digitally in this way is sometimes called ‘morphing’.
For photographers wanting to display images of children here are a few things to consider:
1. Never publish a child’s name and never ever their last name or any personal information for example a street address as the home or even a letter box number in the image.
2. Talk with the parents and gain a signed form with both parents signatures that you can use the images for self promotion including your web site.
3. Make you images small so they cannot be copied and enlarged. Try saving them in a format not suitable for printing before posting.
4. Enter all your file info including copyright.
5. Consider watermarking your images.
6. Activate Right Click Disable – this stops the ability of people to “Save Picture As”of your image. Unfortunately there are ways around this but it will stop the novice.
7. Shrink Wrap your image – this puts a transparent image over the image so when they save it they save a picture of nothing.
8. Use a private gallery viewing on networking sites. Interesting enough from recent research the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Virginia, United States of America, ‘found no evidence of sexual solicitations based on photos of children or information they posted at social networking sites.
9. Always follow the grandma rule: Ask yourself if you would be embarrassed if grandma saw the photo.
10. If someone contacts you asking for more details about the child inform the appropriate authorities immediately.
Regrettably none of these suggestions will stop the war against those out there that use images of children the wrong way and for those of us that want to develop our folios it is going to get harder and harder. Please if you have any further advice I’m sure many of us would love to hear from you.
Friday, 26 June 2009
Focusing for Motor Sport Photography
Since we are heading out tomorrow for a Bluedog Photography ‘Fast Shutters Fast Cars’ session we thought we’d look at focusing in motorsport photography.
Most of the time we use the autofocus operation, and once again there is a ‘but’ to this and that's when we are doing panning. On autofocus we choose continuous and usually keep the focus sensor in the middle of the frame.
While continuous focus will chew through your battery power, the real advantage of it is it helps minimise shutter lag - the time your camera takes to confirm focus before the shutter is released.
Most of the time we use the autofocus operation, and once again there is a ‘but’ to this and that's when we are doing panning. On autofocus we choose continuous and usually keep the focus sensor in the middle of the frame.
While continuous focus will chew through your battery power, the real advantage of it is it helps minimise shutter lag - the time your camera takes to confirm focus before the shutter is released.
Saturday, 20 June 2009
15 Tips for Landscape Photography
1. Create Depth: Position subjects so you have a foreground,
midground and background and all are in sharp focus!
2. Choose a small aperture anything from f/11 to f/32 or smaller and watch your shutter speed – when it falls below what you can hand hold at, use a tripod.
3. Use a wide angle lens – gives a greater angle of view, the depth of field will always be greater with any given aperture than with a telephoto lens.
4. Choose either aperture priority or manual mode.
5. Don’t forget composition! Are there lines you can use to lead the viewers eye into and around your image; look for frames, contrast, colour, what about that rule of thirds?
6. Keep your horizon level – yes another you have heard before but do it!
7.Shoot both vertically and horizontally.
8. Look for a different view point – what’s it like close to the ground or from higher up?
9. Use a low ISO.
10. Learn what your hyperfocal distance is and how to use it.
11. Try not to shoot into the sun and if you really have to use a lens hood or something to reduce or avoid flare.
12. Don’t delete on the shoot – wait till you get home and see it on your computer – you may be pleasantly surprised!
13. Every day is a good day! Look at what’s around.
14. Clouds should be included and are often very dramatic as the rain is going!
15. Study the work of others and learn.
BLUEDOG’S TOP TIP:
At full moon the sky in the opposite direction to where the moon is rising or setting will often be more exaggerated in the hues of pinks and purples!
midground and background and all are in sharp focus!
2. Choose a small aperture anything from f/11 to f/32 or smaller and watch your shutter speed – when it falls below what you can hand hold at, use a tripod.
3. Use a wide angle lens – gives a greater angle of view, the depth of field will always be greater with any given aperture than with a telephoto lens.
4. Choose either aperture priority or manual mode.
5. Don’t forget composition! Are there lines you can use to lead the viewers eye into and around your image; look for frames, contrast, colour, what about that rule of thirds?
6. Keep your horizon level – yes another you have heard before but do it!
7.Shoot both vertically and horizontally.
8. Look for a different view point – what’s it like close to the ground or from higher up?
9. Use a low ISO.
10. Learn what your hyperfocal distance is and how to use it.
11. Try not to shoot into the sun and if you really have to use a lens hood or something to reduce or avoid flare.
12. Don’t delete on the shoot – wait till you get home and see it on your computer – you may be pleasantly surprised!
13. Every day is a good day! Look at what’s around.
14. Clouds should be included and are often very dramatic as the rain is going!
15. Study the work of others and learn.
BLUEDOG’S TOP TIP:
At full moon the sky in the opposite direction to where the moon is rising or setting will often be more exaggerated in the hues of pinks and purples!
Friday, 12 June 2009
Special Places for Photographers to Explore - Fraser Island
The largest sand island in the world, a remarkable and changing landscape with diversity in flora and fauna, Fraser Island, is a photographers delight to visit. Little wonder it has been World-heritage-listed! Sweeping sandy beaches, pristine rainforests, arid sand blows, rusting shipwrecks, clear lakes and tidal pools are just some of the attractions to entice photographers onto this isle located
just off Queensland’s remarkable Fraser Coast.
Here are some of our favourite places to visit:
1. The jetty at Kingfisher Bay Resort at sunset
As the sun dips across the Great Sandy Strait this and baths the sky in either pastels of pinks and blues or rewards you with a stunning vibrant sunset there is an array of topics to photograph. Fisherman luring the last catch for the day, the wooden jetty jutting into the ocean, yachts bobbing just offshore and people enjoying the last of the day at the ambient lit jetty thatched roofed hut.
2. Pile Valley – the only place on earth where rainforest grows on sand! This wilderness area boasts towering Kauri trees, pretty ferns, a range of wildlife that call it home and don’t miss the creek itself!
3. The Wallum - Take a drive, eco tour or walk through the open heath lands where the wildflowers bursting into bloom provide a startling contrast to the ancient Yidney Scrub and wallum. While an island of sand may not at first conjure up thoughts of wildflowers, Fraser Island in bloom is truly a sight not to be missed. Best time to visit for wildflowers is in May.
4. Rainbow Gorge - A short walk off Seventy Five Mile Beach through a cypress forest are the amazing colour sands and sand formations of Rainbow Gorge. Almost an eerie lunar like landscape, the winds of millions of years have carves some wonderful patterns to capture creatively! There are many other sand blows on the island well worth exploring.
5. Cathedral Beach and the Maheno -The most famous of the wrecks on Fraser, the rusting hull of the Maheno lies onshore about 10kms from happy Valley. Washed up in 1935 during a cyclone the once well-known trans-Tasman liner was on route to a Japanese wrecking yard. Not far from the wreck is The Cathedrals - coloured sand cliffs again sculptured by the wind and rain.
And not to be missed is Fraser’s wildlife! From slithering carpet snakes to the huge mariners of the deep - humpback whales – Fraser’s is a nature lover’s haven. One our favourites is the whales which migrate each year from late July to early November – don’t forget a longer lens.
Top Tip:
Don’t have a 4Wd to explore Fraser Island? Then head on out on a Kingfisher Bay personalised Ranger-Guided Eco Tour. You can design your own or let you guide show you around. We’ve done one and they are really great. Find out more by visiting Kingfisher Bay Eco Tours
Pile Valley; Reeds;the Maheno; Kingfisher Bay Jetty
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
A “Genesis” of Photography
The term photojournalist is often used very loosely I feel these days and often more than not some of us, I included, are drawn by the necessity to pay the bill and keep the damper on the table to utilise our image taking and satisfy the hounding editor or at least keep them from the gin bottle for another hour.
I am constantly awed by photographer’s abilities to be able to follow different themes and produce truly stunning images. One of these is Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, considered one of the best photojournalists alive today.
I am constantly awed by photographer’s abilities to be able to follow different themes and produce truly stunning images. One of these is Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, considered one of the best photojournalists alive today.
He has dedicated his life to capturing images that tell the truth, no hidden facts. He is indeed a humanist who conveys his feelings with powerful images and tells of life how it really.
In his latest project which is nearing completion, “Genesis” he is documenting the effects of modern development on our fragile environment.
In his latest project which is nearing completion, “Genesis” he is documenting the effects of modern development on our fragile environment.
"I hope that the person who visits my exhibitions, and the person who comes out, are not quite the same," says Mr. Salgado. "I believe that the average person can help a lot, not by giving material goods but by participating, by being part of the discussion, by being truly concerned about what is going on in the world."
View a slide show HERE of Sebastião Salgado from the New York Times Media: And if you have the time view THIS amazing video - long but worth it!
Image By Sebastião Salgado
A community above ChimborazoEcuador, 1982
© Sebastiao Salgado
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