Manual Photography Cheat Sheet

Posted on November 13, 2011 by admin

Basic but extremely important concepts in photography.
If Exposure, Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO are not stick to your mind yet, well.. it’s worth checking an memorizing them.
The sheet below will be extremely useful for that.

manual photography cheat sheet

Notes:

Exposure
- The light meter is different from the exposure setting.
- Keeping your light meter at “0” doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the perfect setting. Just don’t stray too far from the “0”. Adjust to your liking.
- Positive numbers on your exposure setting will make your photos brighter.
- Negative numbers make your photos darker.

Aperture
- Small numbers (like f/1.4) have larger openings, which let in more light.
- Big numbers (like f/16) have smaller openings, which let in less light.

Shutter Speed
- Seeing 100, 250, 320, etc. on your viewfinder means “1/(number seen)”, like “1/100”.
- Try not to use 1/60 or less when handheld, that’s when you use a tripod or look for something steady.
- Using longer exposure (slow shutter speed) will let in more light.
- Using shorter exposure (fast shutter speed) will let in less light.

ISO
- ISO is the sensitivity of your camera to light
- Lower numbers are less sensitive to light, which give smoother photos.
- Higher numbers are very sensitive to light, which give very grainy and noisy photos.

by Miguel Yatco

Should you watermark your photos?

Posted on November 11, 2011 by admin

Street Photography in Napoli

Posted on October 30, 2011 by admin

Napoli - Spaccanapoli (Historic center)

I’m definitely not a fan of mobile cameras, but I took this photo nearly 2 years ago using a smart-phone Nexus One.

Of course it’s very light and discreet, something that helps a lot in street photography.

I’ve just found this on the mobile, I totally forgot about this random shot I took. It’s unedited as come from the mobile.

I love this kind of photography, taking frames of real life. I’m definitely going to use more the 5D II with a 17-40mm on the street more often than ever.

That particular photo was in the center of Napoli, in a street called Spaccanapoli (literally translated “break-Napoli”) that divides the historic center in two parts.

I particularly like the “story” of the couple talking on the bottom left part and the contrast of the white balance of the cold light outside on the street and the warmth you can fell in the shop.

Lytro launches a focus-free camera

Posted on October 21, 2011 by admin

Lytro is going to launch a camera that takes pictures instantly and lets you focus anywhere within the frame.
Unlike a conventional camera that captures a single plane of light, the Lytro camera captures the entire light field, which is all the light traveling in every direction in every point in space.

You don’t need to focus at all, you can adjust the focus itself to any point in the frame after you actually took the photo and comfortably sitting on your sofa.
Focusing after means no auto-focus motor. No auto-focus motor means no shutter delay (and battery saving).

It Will Cost $399 (and $499 for a more advanced version with 16GB instead of the standard 8GB).
The battery should be great, you should able to fill up the entire camera with pictures on a single charge. So about two weeks of battery time, with regular usage. An entire vacation with no charger.

In the specification you can find “Light Field Resolution”: 11 Megarays: the number of light rays captured by the light field sensor.
The light field is a core concept in imaging science, representing fundamentally more powerful data than in regular photographs. The light field fully defines how a scene appears. It is the amount of light traveling in every direction through every point in space. Conventional cameras cannot record the light field. You can get more details about that on Lytro’s website (Details section) or on Wikipedia.

Go to the Picture Gallery and play with some of the photos. It looks amazing.

This technology inevitably could be implemented in the next future to high end cameras and it would be great particularly for action photography and of course street and reportage photography as well.

A great advantage not having to think about focusing while shooting. On the other hand, there will be something left to do to for the photographer than holding a camera?

The difficult photographer’s life!

Posted on October 5, 2011 by admin

Being a photographer nowadays could be very hard :)

A new community to learn photography.

Posted on September 7, 2011 by admin

I’ve been reading all David duChemin’s books and ebooks he wrote and promoted through his website http://www.pixelatedimage.com/
Very good stuff.

If you’d like to learn “how to see like a camera” and get a very useful source of inspiration -not just reading the usual photography books about general techniques and how-to- well, you should definitely check Craft & Vision.

It’s a website aimed to teach photography in a very unique manner. You will get point of view of many different photographers.
It’s about educating and inspiring your vision.

They’ve just launched a community: a full year of photographic education & inspiration, including a new podcast and blog.
I’d definitely suggest to check at least some of the 30 (for now) ebooks available, a great source of inspiration and very useful information.

Happy learning!

€50 Referral Program

Posted on September 5, 2011 by admin

Get cash by suggesting UnusualFocus Photography to people you know!

Recommend the website to friends and relatives who are getting married and you will get €50 for each successful booking they make for their wedding photography service!

€50 will be sent to you as soon as the couple finalizes the booking. They simply have to mention your name and contact details.
The offer is valid for any service package chosen.
Unlimited referrals are allowed.

Feel free to contact me for any additional information you may need and don’t forget to like UnusualFocus Photography on facebook!

What to expect from my Wedding Photography

Posted on August 22, 2011 by admin

Wedding photography is about capturing the memories you have created and reflecting these moments the way you experienced them. Your photos will be a stunning collection of candid and more formal photos, details, portraits of guests, romantic picturesque images and any special photos you request.

The picture set should reflect what happened during the wedding day and the feelings that you and the guests experienced, so as to retell the story every time your wedding album is opened.

Meeting your photographer

Whenever possible, I will meet you in person well in advance of your wedding. I usually propose an informal venue such as a cafe: this will give you the possibility to view sample albums, have a relaxed chat about your wedding plans, and get a feeling of what it would be like to have me as your wedding photographer. After all I will be there throughout your special day, and it is paramount that you feel I am the right person for you.

Coverage

Coverage typically starts when the bride is getting ready and continues through the day to the start of the meal. There are different packages depending on your needs. For instance, a package can include traditional and storybook albums, prints, canvas prints.

All packages come with a DVD of all images in high resolution at no extra cost.

Make sure you contact me now to ensure the availability of your wedding date.

Read testimonials here, and view samples in the wedding gallery.

I’m currently based in Dublin, Ireland and available for assignments anywhere in Ireland, Europe and the rest of the World.

Partial Solar Eclipse in Dublin

Posted on January 4, 2011 by admin

Yeahhhh, I managed to get a couple of photos of the Partial Solar Eclipse this morning in the usual cloudy Dublin (Ireland).

Unfortunately the conditions were not optimal: a lot of clouds, the sun very close to the horizon (just after the sunrise) that causes atmospheric turbulence, the head of my tripod broken in the right moment (!) and I’m still recovering for the cold wind!
Apart from this you can enjoy a few (not decent) photos below