Play with high shutter speed

High shutter speed normally I call when shutter speed more than 1/125 sec so you can stop the movement of the object you are capturing. Anyways, you may need the shutter speed faster than 1/125 sec depending on how fast of your objects are. Faster of you object movement, faster shutter is required : )

I have another example per following post http://www.digitalshuttermania.com/2007/09/my-gallery-kanchanaburi-amadad-resort.html

You can see my friend jumping into lake. I captured the photo with high shutter speed to stop his movement.

Have fun with your photo : )

Play with slow shutter speed

I took my water fall shot with slow shutter speed at 2 sec so you can see the running water passing the rock (ghostly effect). This concept can be used to create the moving of light at night too. Please see my previous post http://www.digitalshuttermania.com/2007/12/photograph-night-photos-without-tripod.html , http://www.digitalshuttermania.com/2007/08/my-gallery-victory-monument_24.html

Let's play with slow shutter speed : )

My photo: F 13, Shutter Speed 2 sec

This is the good definition from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutter_speed

Slower shutter speeds are often selected to suggest movement in a still photograph of a moving subject.

When an excessively fast shutter speed is selected, a moving subject can often appear unnaturally frozen. For instance, a running person may be caught with both feet in the air with all indication of movement lost in the frozen moment.

The exact point at which the background or subject will start to blur depends on the rate at which the object is moving, the distance it is from the camera and the focal length of the lens in relation to the size of the digital sensor or film.

When slower shutter speeds, in excess of about half a second, are used on running water, the photo will have a ghostly white appearance, with a reminiscence of fog. This effect can be used in landscape photography.

Everything is L-Series

Everything is L-Series. Just make the funny thing with my lenses. As you know L-lens are excellent and pretty expensive lenses so I have the funny idea to create L-like series with my lens : )

I use the red elastic bands and wrap them around my lens. wow look like I have all L-Lens (Called L-Like) : )
These L-like lens are as follows:
EF-50 F1.8 L
Sigma 70-300 APO DG Macro L
EFS 55-250 IS L
EFS 10-22 USM L
EF-28-70 L
EFS 18-55 II L
Tamron 17-50 F2.8L

Have a nice and lovely day : )

Beautifully Blurred Photos

I have my little trick to take totally blurred photos and get nice shots.

1. Set manual focus and rotate a focus rig until your photo shown in view finder is blurred as much as possible.
2. Set Aperture, F, to the lowest F as much as your lens can do.
3. Shoot your photo

Let's try and have fun with blurred night photos.

Cheers
DSM

Flash Diffuser : Do It Yourself

You may have a problem with your pop up flash because flash light is too hard and flatten your photos. Now I have my technique (Do It Yourself) for making priceless flash diffuser and it works very well. I have some photos that I took with my home made flash diffuser.

1. Find empty white film box and make a hole. See pictures below: )


2. Put it on a pop up flash
These are some photos . I took these photo at Motor Expo in BKK. The Motor Expo was exhibited in exhibition hall, Meaung Thong Thani, BKK. I always used my pop up flash in order to get nice photos because lighting in the hall created hard shadow on models' face. These are the result of my pop up flash with my home made flash diffuser. Let's try : )

How to photograph fireworks

During this celebration period as Christmas, New Year, there will be many firework shows in many places. Therefore, there are a lot of opportunities to photograph firework photos.

I am not professional but I would like to share my basic technique of how to take fireworks photos from my digital photography point of view.

What do you need for taking firework photos?

Camera: the one that has “Bulb” shutter speed is preferable.
Wide and normal zoom lens: 10-22 mm, 16-35 mm, 18-55 mm, 24-70mm, etc. Zoom lenses have more flexibility to frame your photos. However, there are no solid rules which focal length should be used because it depends on how far of you and fireworks, how big of the fireworks are, etc.
Tripod: You really need it because of long shutter speed while taking firework photos. You must keep your camera still otherwise your photos will be blurred.
Remote switch: It helps you to keep your camera completely still while photographing firework shots. When you use “Bulb (B)” shutter, you should not press directly to a camera shutter button because it causes the camera to be unstable. Therefore, you can not get sharp and clear photos.

There are some optional things that you may be able to consider as listed below:

Black cap: It’s used for protecting lighting when you want to photograph many fireworks in one shot.
Food and drink: You may wait for awhile before fireworks will be commenced. Therefore, you may need food and drink.
Flashlight: It helps you to find anything in the dark.
Small chair: In case of wait for a long time
Umbrella: In case of raining


Where and when you should go for taking firework photos?
The best place to photograph fireworks should be any tall building around the fireworks area about 0.5-1.5 km from where the fireworks will be shown. You must be able to pan your camera without any obstructions in your viewfinder. Moreover, it should be upwind direction too.

You must go to your location as early as possible because there will be a lot of photographers and speculators. You must remember that the location is everything for taking fireworks photos. The better location you are, the better photos you will get.

How to photograph fireworks?

What you should prepare prior to taking firework photos as follows:
1. Be on location as early as possible and select the best location. The best location is the location where you can see the fireworks without any obstructions and there is interesting foreground or background as buildings, bridges, river, lake, etc.

2. Set your camera on Tripod firmly

3. Set the parameters in the camera as follows:
Mode: M, Manual
Auto focus: Off or Manual
ISO: 100
Shutter speed: Bulb, B
Aperture: vary from F5.6 to F11
Focal length: Infinity
File type: Raw file is preferred because you have more flexibility to process your photos after.
Memory Card: 2 GB at least so that you will not lose your opportunity to take photos due to memory full.
WB: Auto

4. Set good composition by including nice foreground or background as building(s), pool(s), lake(s), bridge(s), river(s), etc. Use rule of third to get the nice composition. There are 2 ways to frame your fireworks photo which are horizontal or vertical. It depends on how your fireworks look like. If your fireworks are one big and long shot, you may need to frame your photos vertically. In other words, if you want to capture wide angle of fireworks, you may need to flame your photos horizontally.

5. Set your remote switch with your camera and test its function.

Let’s photograph fireworks:
1. Once you hear explosion, you start to press and hold a remote switch button. Then you look at the fireworks showing their magic until it disappears and then release the button. Normally, it takes about 5-9 second depending on how long of each firework shot is.

If this is your first shot, please check a photo shown on your LCD and see how the composition and lighting look like. You may need to adjust the camera, the focal length and aperture in order to get the nice composition and lighting. Please do in quickly and continue taking fireworks photos.

2. If you would like to take many fireworks in one shot, please use the following tips:

2.1 When the first firework is shot, press and hold the remote switch button. Then when the first one fades out, put the black cap in front of your lens in order to prevent light coming to your photo while you are still pressing the remote switch button. You must not touch any part of your camera so that your photo will not blur due to camera being moved.

2.2 When the second firework is shot, take the black cap out and wait until the second firework fades out. After that you put the back cap in front of your lens again.

2.3 When you do not want to add any fireworks in your photo, you just release the remote switch button. You can repeatedly use these techniques in order to take many fireworks in one shot. However, you should be prudent with this tip because if you try to take too many fireworks in one shot, your photo will be too over exposure and your photo will be the flashy shot. Normally, I use this tip to get only 2 to 3 fireworks in one shot.

3. Check your photos periodically. You may have time to check your photos because the fireworks are shot periodically. You may change the composition and/or delete some bad photos in order to reserve the memory space.

These are guidelines to help you to photograph fireworks. Let’s try and have fun with fireworks.

Modified remote switch for Canon EOS 300D, 350D and 400D

I read about how to create a modified remote switch made from Motorola Head Phone from the digital photography board in Thailand. It works very well and you can do it easily.. 10 mins job : ) As I know, it works properly with Canon EOS 300D, 350D and 400D.

Let's start

1. Buy Motorola Head Phone, there are 2 black rings at a head phone jack.
2. Take the cover off and you will see a speaker phone line and head phone line.
3. Cut them off
4. Reassemble the cover
5. Here we go. When you press the button, it will automatically focus. If you press again, it will shoot a photo. If the camera already focuses, when you press the button it will shoot. It works OK and very economy (3 US$ for Motorola head set) .

I used it when I took my fireworks photos and an example is shown below. I will post "How to photograph fireworks" later and show you more firework photos : )
Cheers
Have a nice and lovely day
DSM

My Gallery - Play with Zoom Effect

I just played with zoom effect. It was fantastic. Anyway I still need more practices for this technique. Any comments are welcome.

Equipment Canon 400D with 18-55 Kit