5 Tips for Point & Shooters

Here are 5 quick and easy tips to keep in mind next time you lift your pocket cam up.

1) Lots of Sunshine, Lots of Auto!

Keeping the camera in Automatic Mode is a good idea with pocket cams. Where they excel or do their best is when they are used in bright sunny conditions. Keep it in Auto Mode as much as you can during the day. Try to use available soft light. The sun has a lot of strong harsh light that cast ghastly shadows on people and subjects. Try to walk around your subject and getting a different angle of lighting. There's always a good angle, it's just up to you find it :)

2) Auto Sucks - Snow Scenes

Now that winter will be hitting us soon, we'll be getting into our winter challenge themes. As a result this will involve some shooting of the white stuff. Your point and shoot camera fails miserably here. The newer camera models are getting better at this, but it's still a good idea to know what to do when your snow scenes are looking a little dull or gray. Your camera reacts to the amount of light coming in. Snow conditions are bright and as a result the camera thinks the scene is too bright so it underexposes the image. The result is flat photos. This is what you do to override that.

Keep the Camera in Auto Mode. Look for the EV (exposure value) controls. It will normally be at '0'. Tell the camera to overexpose the image by going to +0.3 or +0.7 depending on your camera model. Take your shot and look at your LCD and you'll notice your snow looks white!

3) Pop up the Flash!

The sun is behind your subject, or you have an amazing subject in the background but you want some detail in the foreground, say having a person not just be a shadow in your photo. Pop up the flash or set the flash to on. The camera will expose for the background but will add the flash to lighten up the foreground subject (usually a person). I know it's weird saying pop up the flash in the middle of the day but trust me, it'll do wonders for your photos. If the photos look like they have too much flash, dial down the flash power or set your camera to rear sync flash or 2nd sync curtain.

Before Flash

After Flash

4) Awesome Sunset/Night Portraits?

This one may require a tripod if you've got shaky hands but if you don't, try this one out. It's very similar to number 3), in fact it's really the same tip. You have an amazing sunset but you want your significant other in your photo to be something more than a shadow in the sunset or to show up in the night shot but not look like a deer in the headlights. Or you want the background to show up vivid or to even register some detail. Switch your camera to night portrait (even if there is available light) and or also pop up your flash.

This shot was done just after the sun had gone down. I put the camera on my bag as a makeshift tripod and set my camera to an equivalent of the night portrait mode for point and shoot cameras.

Sunset Shot

5) Light is key!

Available light is the most important part for point and shoot cameras. It has to be a good amount of light especially with indoor shots. Avoid using the flash if you can, but if you can't use tips 3) & 4). When shooting indoors and you really don't want to use flash, try to turn on as many lights as you can. Get your subject near lamps that are off image. Try to avoid shooting in dark conditions with your point and shoot otherwise you'll notice a lot of noise in your photos. Unless of course, this is what you're gunning for... To each their own.

I hope these 5 tips help just a little bit more with your everyday shooting.

Happy Shooting,

Shutter Nirvana

Question - Different Lenses, Human Eyes??

Question
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What's the difference between different camera lenses?
i.e. 12mm vs 30mm vs a 50mm, etc... etc...
What does the Human Eye usually see?

Answer
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Good question and it's all the more confusing when relating it to full frame sensors.

Ok right off the bat let's get something established. Cropped Sensor equivalent is the Full Frame rating x the cropping factor. So a 18-200mm lens on a full frame camera is really a 27-300mm lens on a dslr body.

That being said, there are three ranges in lenses.

- Ultra wide angle
- General Zoom
- Telephoto

Ultra Wide angle lenses are lenses that are less than 18mm on a dslr and less than 27mm on a full frame camera. Ultra wide angle lenses give you about 105 degrees (sometimes more) viewing angles. They give your shots crazy amounts of barrel distortion but it's like shooting a panoramic shot without taking multiple shots. Keep in mind with wide angle lenses, when shooting a subject, the subject will look further away than they actually are. This is a side effect of the effective focal length of the lens. Basically, wide angles make distance between
your subject and you seem vast.

General Zoom lenses fall in the range of 18-70mm (dSLR) or 27-105mm (Full Frame). These cover some wide and some telephoto. They're the in between lenses and are quite useful for about 85% of your shots.

Telephotos are lenses greater than 70mm (dslr) or 105 mm (Full Frame). These beasts sometimes come with their own stands depending on how much zoom you have (i.e. 500mm). The thing to note about telephotos is that they essentially are magnifying the image. As a result, it will make everything in the photo appear closer to the photographer than it really is... You say Duh? What I mean to say is that, your subject will look close, but anything in the background will also look like it is right behind the subject. I will post up example photos to describe this a bit better. This effect is called perspective compression.

There is one other category of lenses which is mostly for professional photographers or people with lots of money. This category is called prime lenses. These lenses are dedicated focal lengths... i.e. 50mm, 35mm, 85mm, etc... They have no zoom and therefor less moving parts
inside the lens. This means less chromatic abberation and also larger apertures. They are great lenses but they are obviously not as flexible as zoom lenses.

To answer your question directly, a 12mm lens is ultra wide angle lens. It's equivalent to 18mm lens on a dslr. 30mm falls into the general zoom category. 50mm starts falling into the telephoto range. With the above effects of each lens category explained, you can make
your lens choices wisely with the new knowledge.

I can go on and on about lenses, but I'll leave it at that for now. I'll get some shots into the post to describe the perspective compression.

The human eye views about 20-22mm in terms of focal length. We can also perceive 324 Megapixels and we have an incredibly high dynamic range. If someone could use our eyes as cameras, we'd have amazing shots.

Happy Shooting,

Shutter Nirvana

Question - Full Frame Cameras??

Question

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What's the Deal with Full Frame Cameras?

Answer
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The question is really Full Frame Vs. Cropped Frame.

First off what is your camera? SLRs (Single Lens Reflex) cameras were traditionally full frame. In the olden days, film was usually shot on 35mm negatives. Now when the initial switch to digital occurred the image now had to be captured on a sensor. Initially the cost of making the sensors was incredibly expensive as it was new technology. Ideally you would want the sensor to be the same size as the 35mm film cameras so that you could use your lenses to capture the entire image. This proved to be too costly to manufacture so companies generally agreed to offer cropped sensors. Smaller sensors meant less price. You still get amazing quality out of the smaller sensors but the switch to digital had come at a cost.

The same lenses that you would use on a 35 mm film camera now had an issue on dslr. For example say you have a standard 18-200 mm lens. Now take a dslr that has the sensor reduced by 1.5 times in physical size than a 35mm sensor. When you look through the viewfinder what you're seeing is a magnified image. The cropping factor means your image has been magnified by 1.5 times. Take a look at the two images below to get an understanding of what I'm talking about here.

35 mm Equivalent (Full Frame) shot at 18 mm

Cropping factor of 1.5

dslr Cropped Sensor Equivalent shot at 18mm (equivalent to 27mm)

Notice how in the full frame version you have a wider angle shot. You see a lot more in the photo. Now when you look through a dslr even though you have the same lens attached, you're seeing a lot less at 18mm. Why? the sensor is smaller so it can't see as much of the image. Notice also how the image is now more "zoomed in". This is called the magnification effect. Your 18mm lens now becomes a 27mm lens.

So what are the pros and cons of full frame?

Pros: Much wider angle shot with your lenses. An 18mm lens is a true 18mm. More resolution in the shot.
Cons: Bigger/Heavier camera and freakishly expensive.

Pros and Cons of Cropped Sensor Cameras?

Pros: Lighter, smaller, cheaper cameras. Lenses give you more telephoto zoom. i.e. a 18-200mm is really a 27- 300mm lens.
Cons: Dedicated lenses must be bought to work with cropped sensors to refract and concentrate light on smaller sensor. Need a dedicated lens for wide angle shots.

Bottom Line is get Full Frame cameras such as (D700, D3, 5D Mark II) if you're doing commercial studio shots, high end wedding photography, landscape photography. Generally full frame cameras give you sharper control and more dedicated resolution.

Hope that Helps,

Shutter Nirvana

October Challenges - Purple, Festive October

Hello All,

Just in case you missed it, we have now switched over to monthly challenges. You have one month to submit however many photos you want up to a maximum of two photos per challenge. Do one, do both, it's up to you!

Challenge 1 - Courtesy of Steph
Purple


Challenge 2 - Courtesy of Traci

Festive October

(i.e. Halloween, Thanksgiving etc...)


Submit your photos via e-mail (nirvana.shutter@gmail.com) by or on October 31st.

I will send out a reminder e-mail in two weeks.

We look forward to seeing your photos

-Shutter Nirvana

Shutter Nirvana - Changes and Announcements

Hello All,

The general complaint has been that the weekly challenges don't give enough time to complete the challenges and any photos being submitted are really counterproductive. We've all got busy lives and I can relate to that. So... we've decided to make a few changes.

Announcment 1

First off the weekly challenges are officially dead. Well I shouldn't say dead, but they are being put aside and we're going to try something new. Instead of doing weekly challenges, let's do Monthly Challenges! Basically this is how it will work.

At the beginning of every month, two challenges will be announced. Each member can decide to do only one challenge or do both. For each challenge each member can submit up to a maximum of two photos.

I.e.

If only one challenge is chosen, a member can submit either one or two photos for that theme.
If both challenges are chosen, a member can submit 2, 3, or 4 photos.

So if a member only wants to get in one photo in by the end of the month then great. If they want to do more then also great.

Each member has until the end of the month to submit their photos via e-mail (nirvana.shutter@gmail.com).

You will be receiving another e-mail shortly for this month's challenges, (I know I'm already a week late)


Announcement 2

We've also decided to open up the site for questions and answers. If you have any question, no matter how silly you think it is (when it comes to cameras even the simplest questions can have complicated answers) go ahead and e-mail your question to nirvana.shutter@gmail.com The question will be posted up on the blog along with the answer for others to see as well as a response will be e-mailed to the original questioner. No names will be posted up and the question will remain anonymous.

We've already had a couple, which you can view at:

http://shutternirvana.blogspot.com/search/label/Questions

So now that the changes have been announced I'll get working on the monthly challenge e-mail.

Happy Shooting!

Question - Wide Angle Lenses with VR/IS?

Question
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Hey,

Are there any wide angle lenses with VR or IS available on the market?

Answer
------------------
I'll answer from the Nikon perspective as I have a Nikon Camera but the answer is relevant to both.

Well besides the 17-55 f2.8 VR, nothing! Generally speaking companies don't
really see a demand for VR or IS on the wide angle lenses. Wide angle being
anything lower than a 18 mm on a dslr (equivalent to 27mm on full frame).
The reason being that VR is generally attributed (at least in the minds of
the companies) to taking shots of people with low light or long telescopic
zooms so that you don't get camera shake when you are at 70mm plus (To get
no camera shake introduced in your photos with telephotos or the zoom end
of your lenses, you have to shoot at a shutter speed of at least 1/zoom mm
i.e. 1/200mm which really means 1/300mm on a full frame camera, so shutter
speed on dslr with a zoom of 200mm will have to be 1/300). Adding the VR
allows you to reduce that by a few stops depending on lighting conditions.
I.e. you could get away with a 200 mm zoom at a shutter speed of 1/250 or
even 1/200 and still have sharp images.

So why not the wide angle? Wide angles distort people's faces so bad that
the people shots don't make sense. You're not zooming so VR isn't need
there. Photographers are generally taking pics of still life i.e.
buildings, landscapes, and cardinal rule of photography when taking these
shots is to use a tripod for crisp photos.

So long answer short, nothing yet!

As a side note,

For point and shoot cameras the widest angle you can get equivalent to dslr lenses is generally 27, 28 mm. You can buy wide angle attachments for the fancier cameras such as the Canon G9.

Question - Focussing and Metering?

Question
------------------------

Hey, random question.

You know how your metering and autofocus are set on a half pressed
shutter (I guess in settings you can change that). What do you do if you want to
meter 1 place and focus on another if it's done at the same time? If you
change the settings so the half press only does one, how do you set the
other?

Answer
------------------------
I'll answer this question two ways. First way being the fast/doesn't always work/quick candid shots way, and the next when you want precise control and know exactly what you want.

Basically what you're describing is metering off of something in your picture, setting your camera to those exposure levels and then focussing on another part of your scene.

1st way

Set your camera to center weighted metering or spot metering (for really
difficult lighting situations). Next find your AE-L button (you may have to
configure a function key to be AE-L) or Lock slider (I know this exists on
the Nikons, not too sure on the Canons). AE-L stands for auto exposure lock. Next point your camera at what you want it to meter off of. Press and
hold the AE-L button or slide the lock slider into the lock position. Now
recompose your scene and press half way to focus camera on your subject
and take the shot! I know it's not exactly fast sounding, but it is quicker
in implementation.

2nd Way

Welcome to the wonderful world of manual photography.

To do this, you have to venture away from the program auto modes and
shutter modes. Set your camera to spot meter, meter off of something
(you want neutral gray tone). Change Aperture and Shutter speed to expose
your light meter to balance. Then move to your subject and take the shot. Why
do I like this way better? I can play with depth of field or shutter speed
however I want to get the desired affect.


For Point and Shoot Cameras,

It depends on the camera model. The generic Cameras usually can only focus and meter when the shutter button is pressed halfway. For more advanced cameras such as the Canon G9 and the Nikon P60, you will be able to do what I described above.