Archive for September, 2011
Ten Ways to Take Better Photos Without Spending More Money
No matter what your photography knowledge level or equipment are, you can take better photos today than you did yesterday without spending a dime. Every one of my suggestions can be applied whether you’ve had professional training or not, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re using a $100 point-and-shoot or an expensive DSLR. Geared primarily towards amateur hobbyists, perhaps those of you with more experience can get some ideas as well. Here are some suggestions that are independent of gear.
Review: Rokinon 7.5mm f3.5 Fisheye Lens for Micro Four Thirds
Rokinon is a lens maker that has received a lot of interest as of late, especially with their 85mm f1.4. Though they are the same lenses as Samyang and a couple of other brands, that should not discount the quality of these lenses. The all manual lenses are characterized by a design that harkens back to the old ways of how lenses were built and does so at an affordable price point. According to Rokinon on Facebook, the price will be around $299.00. So does that mean that their first lens for the Micro Four Thirds system performs admirably as well?
Update: B&H Photo now carries them.
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Hands on (Part 2): Canon 8-15mm f4 L Fisheye
About a year ago, we had our first hands on with the Canon 8-15mm f4 L Fisheye zoom lens. Recently, we had the opportunity to try it out on the Canon 5D Mk II with a 430 EX II attached. So how did it perform?
FYI: We’re getting the lens in for a full review.
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Parents & Photography During Early Days of Grammar School
School has begun. All the little kiddies are off. Parents with cameras are out in force getting those early images of the school year. From what I have seen, it can be done a little better. I am a husband and a dad first, and then I am a photographer. When it comes to taking pictures of kids at school, I tend to take it a little serious. First thing I do is make sure to acknowledge, when at school, it’s about the kids and making them comfortable. It is not the images. If you get good pictures, fantastic, if the kids start their day super happy, that is the real victory! My kids’ first day at school, this year, inspired this post. A dad with a Nikon D700 and a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S lens with a lens hood on, almost smacked a child in the head with his gear.
Color Theory, The Ricoh GXR and Saving an Impossibly Colored Image
Save Me...
During the Ricoh GXR review, I shot a photo at night of a couple of flowers in my front yard. The problem is that this was shot during nighttime with no extra light besides the illumination from the orange colored street lamps. The flowers in the photo are supposed to be white, the bricks tan, and the plants themselves a healthy shade of green.
After weeks of working in Lightroom 3 on and off, I have finally rescued the image by taking my time and reassessing the reasoning behind color theory. While it looks like and seems like an easy fix, it really isn’t. Here’s how you can rescue an impossibly white balanced image; after a couple of basics.
Editor’s Note: This is a long post. So stay with us and you’ll be very well rewarded with a treasure chest of knowledge.
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Photos of The Lenses for Sale
I received a couple of emails and queries asking about my lenses for sale. Here are some photos of the lenses. Quite literally, no editing was done to these photos, as you can see.
