Madison (why I love my new Nikon)

I haven't been uploading recently, and there's a ton of new stuff waiting to come up to this blog. I hope I will get it pretty much in order, and anyway, it's better late than never.

So, going back to May 2015 I had flown to Wisconsin for a conference and some work with the collaboration I was part of. Like every trip abroad this is a chance to see and photograph new sceneries and people, and to act like a tourist and take pictures of absolutely everything.

This was my first chance to try out my new Nikon D610, which performed beautifully and, even though I still love my old D90, did let me do some new things I couldn't get away with using the old technology and crop sensor...

So just a small selection of images from the lovely Madison, WI. If you like this kind of thing, I will link to a few facebook albums with some more images.

Night Catalog

Last November I helped a friend make a catalog for a line of LED products for pubs and clubs.


I took this as an opportunity to learn more about product photography, although this project was very different than most product catalogs.


Since the whole point was to show the self-lit products, I wanted to make everything in a nocturnal environment. This made some things very easy (the backgrounds were easy to black out) but it also presented some problems. The main difficulty was that the LED lights are much weaker than my flash, and I had to go to very small apertures and very long exposures to get them at the same power.


So I had to resort to other lighting sources. Making sure the colors match and that the background stayed as dark as possible were also concerns that kept this shoot interesting.

The second part of the shoot was a month later at a pub, showing off the products at their intended surroundings.

Exposure part II: Know Your Limits

Today I will talk a little about unsharp pictures. Most people are happy with their camera and seem to get sharp, colorful images every time, even with a cheap point-and-shoot or a cell phone camera. At least, until they try to take a picture at a low light situation. This is usually when the blurriness starts.

Of course, buying a better (more expensive) camera might help. It might not (sometimes it's too dark). Maybe, just maybe, you just didn't make the right choice of aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

I don't intend to specify what the "correct exposure" for every situation is. For that we have a built in light meter, and a little screen on the back of the camera.


I do want to show some examples of what kinds of blurriness or noise we get from badly chosen exposure settings. Once you know what they look like, you might be able to get sharper images in the same situation, or at least know when too dark is just too dark.

Exposure part I: Proper Exposure

Today I will try to answer the following questions:

What is 'exposure'?

How to determine what a proper exposure is?

What does my camera's light meter do and why should I care about it?

What is the difference between SLR and pocket cameras when it comes to determining exposure?

and why do I need P,S,A and M modes, really?

For expert photographers these questions are trivial, but for people trying to get into the field these concepts always seem to be scary. I aim this post at people who want to know more, and I will try to explain the how-to's for SLR owners that are just starting up, and to pocket camera enthusiasts who want to get more out of pictures.

DUMBFSA

Today I want to talk to all the people who have digital cameras but never bothered to read the manual. Or tried to read it but it was too complicated. For all my friends who 'just put it on automatic'.

I know the internet is full of guides to help out beginners who want to get more out of their pictures, but I always think it must be too long/boring/complicated for most people - fact is, most people I know (that aren't serious photographers) never did read any of that stuff, and quite a few times ask me basic questions about photography, most of the time about how to work their camera. This includes SLR owners (not just point-and-shoot moms).

So here is the most basic things you should know to get the best shots off your camera.

D.U.M.B.F.S.A - Didn't Understand the Manual, But Felt Silly to Ask.