That is a problem bothering many photographers and especially ordinary people who tries to take pictures at a party in a very low-light conditions. In this case the built-in camera flashes are quite convenient but they can produce terrible results starting from red-eye to nuclear-looking and unnatural glow when used at evening parties.
1) Most cameras have a built in red-eye reduction mode like in the Canon Rebel for example. You can find it easily in the menu, just navigate to it and turn it on. It's that simple.
The idea behind the red-eye reduction is that the camera shines a bright light in your eye, right before the flash goes off. That's supposed to reduce the size of your pupil and than reduce the glare of your eye.
Most photographers don't like to use the red-eye reduction because for one thing the bright light in your eye is pretty annoying at a party, and for another thing you often still end up with red-eye, even when you're using the mode.
2) Another mode that a lot of cameras have that can help you reduce the red-eye is something called "night time flash" mode. In the case of Canon Rebel you simply turn the top dial until you get to a little picture that looks like a person standing underneath the star.
"Night Time Flash" mode slows down the shutter speed of your camera. So you capture everything that's in the background, but the flash still goes off and everyone with in about 10 feet of you is eliminated.
That gets rid of that artificial party look where everyone in front of you is really bright but it looks like there is no party behind them.
One thing to watch out with this mode is that you have to hold the camera really steady. Otherwise you get a lot of movement and blurring your shots. Which can be very artistic, but it might not be the one you're looking for.
3) Another setting you can use is called "Flash exposure compensation". You should use this setting when your subjects are consistently overexposed (too bright). Usually this setting is located in the menu of options, and it allows you to adjust the intensity of the flash. Recommended is to start with a setting of -1 and go from there.
4) Increasing the ISO speed setting can help you achieving some pretty good results, but remember to return to the default when you're done. By increasing your ISO speed from 100 to 200, 400 or more, you're essentially increasing the sensitivity of your image sensor.
The results usually include more background information and an extended flash range (from 8feet to 15 feet). You should know that you will get a little more image noise in the higher ISO settings. That isn't much of an issue in smaller prints, but it might be noticeable in enlargements, especially in the shadow areas.
5) Shutter Priority mode is one of the best tricks that you could use, if you're lucky enough to have it in your camera. Essentially, it allows you to set any shutter speed you want, and the camera then adjusts the aperture and the flash output to match. The default shutter speed in flash mode for most cameras is 1/60 second. If you switch to shutter-priority mode, you can slow down the shutter speed to 1/30 or 1/15 second, and you'll notice a big difference in your shots.
Those speeds are long enough to capture much more background information-such as twinkling lights, candles, and such--but not so slow that you get excessive blurring and camera shake. If you combine this technique with increasing your ISO to 200, you'll get some great results. This is a winner for party pictures.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Happy New Year. Good Luck and Lots of Hapiness in 2007
Hello, all. I hope that you enjoyed the holiday days as much as I did. Let me share the news with you. My country Bulgaria has officially joined the European Union. After 50 years of communism and after more than 15 years of chaos, I'm really really glad to announce that we joined successfully the civilized world in face of the European Union. Now hopefully we will enjoy better lifestyle and a life without war and violence. So once again I congratulate you all for me and my country.
Fortunately I managed to do some small changes to Digital-Photo-Secrets.net during the holiday season. The changes are very small indeed except one. I found a really useful Java applet written by a programmer named Martin Reiger. This applet makes possible to zoom in and out a digital picture (i.e. GIF or JPEG) with your cursor in a real time on a web page. If you didn't understand quite well what it is click here to go and see it for real.
It is called XIO® Software from Martin Reiger. You can check a real time demo by pointing your browser to that link. In my opinion that software was developed for webmasters of 'photography', 'image editing' or 'image trading/selling' related web sites. They can get use of that creation by offering to their customers to zoom in and zoom out large images directly on their web site. And all that in real time.
With XIOview Java applet, you can give to your customers an incredible convenience. Imagine that the user wants to check the image quality by zooming it but he doesn't want to start his heavy image editing software on his computer (like Photoshop etc.). Just by using the arrow keys on his keyboard anyone can easily adjust the zoom-level up to 800%. And the easiest thing is to point with your mouse where you want that zoom on the picture. Very well designed Java applet which runs smoothly on slow computers as well.
On the XIOview web site you can choose from a demo license for one month to a full license for up to five domains. If you'd like to test it first you can download the software and get a free trial key for one month from here. It's very smart software but I thought that would be wiser to test it before I buy it, so I downloaded the files installed them and got my trial license. After I did that I was really impressed by the way it can help me and my customers to feel better internet experience by visiting my web site. My Digital Photography web site needed this so I ordered a full license. If you want to do so. Click Here To Order Your License Now
Best Wishes and Successful 2007
Philip Krasteff
Fortunately I managed to do some small changes to Digital-Photo-Secrets.net during the holiday season. The changes are very small indeed except one. I found a really useful Java applet written by a programmer named Martin Reiger. This applet makes possible to zoom in and out a digital picture (i.e. GIF or JPEG) with your cursor in a real time on a web page. If you didn't understand quite well what it is click here to go and see it for real.
It is called XIO® Software from Martin Reiger. You can check a real time demo by pointing your browser to that link. In my opinion that software was developed for webmasters of 'photography', 'image editing' or 'image trading/selling' related web sites. They can get use of that creation by offering to their customers to zoom in and zoom out large images directly on their web site. And all that in real time.
With XIOview Java applet, you can give to your customers an incredible convenience. Imagine that the user wants to check the image quality by zooming it but he doesn't want to start his heavy image editing software on his computer (like Photoshop etc.). Just by using the arrow keys on his keyboard anyone can easily adjust the zoom-level up to 800%. And the easiest thing is to point with your mouse where you want that zoom on the picture. Very well designed Java applet which runs smoothly on slow computers as well.
On the XIOview web site you can choose from a demo license for one month to a full license for up to five domains. If you'd like to test it first you can download the software and get a free trial key for one month from here. It's very smart software but I thought that would be wiser to test it before I buy it, so I downloaded the files installed them and got my trial license. After I did that I was really impressed by the way it can help me and my customers to feel better internet experience by visiting my web site. My Digital Photography web site needed this so I ordered a full license. If you want to do so. Click Here To Order Your License Now
Best Wishes and Successful 2007
Philip Krasteff
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Web Site Update - from the site owner.
I'm very glad to announce that Digital-Photo-Secrets.net has been updated. There is a brand new site map page for easier browsing and integrity, and some other small changes as well.
Enjoy!
Keep visiting our Blog and stay tuned for the next update. It'll come very soon :-)
For the next update be ready to expect few more articles on the same subject. They will contain much more tips and tricks for taking great professional pictures so don't miss out. Everything is free of course.
Enjoy!
Keep visiting our Blog and stay tuned for the next update. It'll come very soon :-)
For the next update be ready to expect few more articles on the same subject. They will contain much more tips and tricks for taking great professional pictures so don't miss out. Everything is free of course.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Digital Photography - 5 Professional Insider Tips To Start Taking Photos Like A Pro
Let’s begin with the concept of digital photography. Digital photography is not much different than the ordinary film photography. The main difference is that in digital photography the camera uses digital memory device much like in the computer. It could be a memory stick, flash memory or other media. Some camcorders even use DVDs to store the captured information.
No matter what memory media you have, the results depend on the quality of the camera itself and other things such as resolution, lenses, brand or technology. However if you want to take better pictures with your digital camera, you have to follow some basic rules of photography.
These rules are not well known by ordinary people, so I hope that this article will help you a lot in the progress of teaching yourself ‘How to improve your photos like the pros do.’
1) Use optical rather than digital zoom.
Digital zoom as opposed to optical zoom is just a technological simulation of optical zoom. That means the camera uses special software to enlarge the image, which is the same as if you use your digital software on your computer.
In optical zoom, camera uses the lenses to bring the image closer. And that is the one you should use. You should avoid using digital zoom at all. If you ever need to use digital zoom, better do it on your computer, with your favourite image editing software. At the end you’ll have much better results with your image.
2) Move in closer.
Almost any shot will look better if you take two or three steps closer to your subject. When you do that and fill the entire frame with your subject, it will make a terrific difference to your photos. Why does this work? With less clutter in the image, there’s less to draw the eye away from the main subject of your photo.
If you can’t get close enough when you’re taking the shot, you can zoom in later using photo editing software. Just crop out everything except the subject’s face and see what difference it makes.
3) Take much more shots than you need and erase them.
One of the best advantages of digital cameras is the ability to erase your photos. We’d be mad not to use this feature to the fullest extent. We all know how the professional photographers do their photo sessions. They make shot after shot without thinking and after that they choose the best ones. The average percent of the best shots is about 20% from a hundred shots taken.
And if you think about it, it makes perfect sense because you can’t expect to make a perfect shot from the first time. My advice is in every half an hour of shooting, review your most recent pictures and erase any that don’t make the grade, or you have better versions of.
4) To use a tripod or not?
When speaking of tripods many people don’t like it because they are heavy to care and are pretty big. But no doubt it will help sharpen your photos. When you use a tripod your camera stands still on the top of it. There are tripods with just one leg called monopods. They are not as good as tripods but they are much lither to carry and will improve your pictures much more than if you’re just using your hands.
If you don’t like to carry with you anything except your camera, there is a simple trick that many people don’t know. Instead of a tripod you can use any other horizontal surface that is still. Surfaces like rocks, chairs, cars, anything could do the same work as a tripod. But be careful not to damage your camera, though as cameras have tendency to slip and brake when put on chairs, rocks etc.
5) Why should we use flash during the day?
It is a fact that professional photographers use flash much more often than amateurs. But why is that? Let’s imagine that you want to take a picture in a very sunny day. Most people never think of the flash in such conditions. The truth is they should. The reason is when you try to shoot a bird swimming in the water for example, the water is reflecting the sun. The camera is fooled by the bright surroundings and the subject appears very dark at the end.
That isn’t the effect we want so by turning flash on you will reduce the shadow areas of the image and make it much more pleasing. You’ll see the difference for yourself, when you take two same shots with and without a flash.
If you are really interested in digital photography, you can visit author’s website, which is dedicated to hand over free information to amateur photographers. Visit Digital-Photo-Secrets.net
No matter what memory media you have, the results depend on the quality of the camera itself and other things such as resolution, lenses, brand or technology. However if you want to take better pictures with your digital camera, you have to follow some basic rules of photography.
These rules are not well known by ordinary people, so I hope that this article will help you a lot in the progress of teaching yourself ‘How to improve your photos like the pros do.’
1) Use optical rather than digital zoom.
Digital zoom as opposed to optical zoom is just a technological simulation of optical zoom. That means the camera uses special software to enlarge the image, which is the same as if you use your digital software on your computer.
In optical zoom, camera uses the lenses to bring the image closer. And that is the one you should use. You should avoid using digital zoom at all. If you ever need to use digital zoom, better do it on your computer, with your favourite image editing software. At the end you’ll have much better results with your image.
2) Move in closer.
Almost any shot will look better if you take two or three steps closer to your subject. When you do that and fill the entire frame with your subject, it will make a terrific difference to your photos. Why does this work? With less clutter in the image, there’s less to draw the eye away from the main subject of your photo.
If you can’t get close enough when you’re taking the shot, you can zoom in later using photo editing software. Just crop out everything except the subject’s face and see what difference it makes.
3) Take much more shots than you need and erase them.
One of the best advantages of digital cameras is the ability to erase your photos. We’d be mad not to use this feature to the fullest extent. We all know how the professional photographers do their photo sessions. They make shot after shot without thinking and after that they choose the best ones. The average percent of the best shots is about 20% from a hundred shots taken.
And if you think about it, it makes perfect sense because you can’t expect to make a perfect shot from the first time. My advice is in every half an hour of shooting, review your most recent pictures and erase any that don’t make the grade, or you have better versions of.
4) To use a tripod or not?
When speaking of tripods many people don’t like it because they are heavy to care and are pretty big. But no doubt it will help sharpen your photos. When you use a tripod your camera stands still on the top of it. There are tripods with just one leg called monopods. They are not as good as tripods but they are much lither to carry and will improve your pictures much more than if you’re just using your hands.
If you don’t like to carry with you anything except your camera, there is a simple trick that many people don’t know. Instead of a tripod you can use any other horizontal surface that is still. Surfaces like rocks, chairs, cars, anything could do the same work as a tripod. But be careful not to damage your camera, though as cameras have tendency to slip and brake when put on chairs, rocks etc.
5) Why should we use flash during the day?
It is a fact that professional photographers use flash much more often than amateurs. But why is that? Let’s imagine that you want to take a picture in a very sunny day. Most people never think of the flash in such conditions. The truth is they should. The reason is when you try to shoot a bird swimming in the water for example, the water is reflecting the sun. The camera is fooled by the bright surroundings and the subject appears very dark at the end.
That isn’t the effect we want so by turning flash on you will reduce the shadow areas of the image and make it much more pleasing. You’ll see the difference for yourself, when you take two same shots with and without a flash.
If you are really interested in digital photography, you can visit author’s website, which is dedicated to hand over free information to amateur photographers. Visit Digital-Photo-Secrets.net
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