Photography

[Yuiichi]

@BBB - My P&S doesn't have any setting to manually control Aperture, so this tip means nothing to me, at least now. But I do have several questions about Aperture/depth of field.

You said that P&S cameras often have the Aperture wide open, to reduce camera shake. This means that they often shoot in a really low Aperture setting then, right? Something like f/2.8? Also, in relation to depth of field, the more closed to Aperture is, the more blurry the background, correct? And, finally, you give separate values for both P&S and dSLR cameras - I'm just wondering how you got those values? Experimentation or some other source, maybe?

Sorry those questions are all over the place and thanks for continually being a source of great information!

EDIT: Attention all Flickr users; I just created a group for photography from the Apple Blog. You can see it here. Any photography you want critiqued, discussed, or to show off, this is a great place to put it! I hope everyone here makes good use of it!

[baseballboy828]

@Yuiichi: First off, the wider the aperture, the less depth of field, the larger, the more. Less depth of field means less distance between things in focus. So, the farther off the background, the blurrier it will be. If the background's close, depth of field would have to be really short to make the background soft. I got the idea of P&S cameras have huge amounts of depth of field from a great book called Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. He explains that P&S aperture settings times 4 are equal to SLR's settings. f/5.6=f/22, f/8=f/32, etc. He didn't explain why this is, but he explained the whole thing well. He goes on to say that the huge depth of field w/out the slow shutter speeds small apertures usually require is great, but that it kills their ability for portraiture. An aperture of f/2.8=f/11, so portraits are no good. He gives an example where he uses a Nikon Coolpix 5700 (which GadgetComa has I believe) where he could shoot with an equivalent aperture of f/16 for an SLR and not need a tripod, whereas on an SLR he'd absolutely need a tripod. By the way, I highly recommend buying his book. Great read.

[philbowell]

Thanks for the tips BBB, I'll be keeping them in mind over the next couple of weeks when I go away!

[asadeddin]

Thanks BBB!

[baseballboy828]

For anyone who's interested, I created a portfolio on flickr which you can find here:

Portfolio - a photoset on Flickr

[zantafio]

I'm new here. I have skimmed through the blog, and this looks quite nice.

I look forward to become a part of your community.

here are some pictures that i have taken.

the first one is of my best friend catching some air, and the second one is a result of plain boredom

[baseballboy828]

Just got two cool new gadgets to play *I mean work* with. Seriously though. These will be really helpful when I go to Banff and Jasper national parks in Canada later this month. Anyway, one is a Nikon ML-L3, which is a tiny infrared remote that trips the shutter on my D50. I have yet to test it in the field to see how far the IR signal will reach, but it seems great and only costed about $10. The second was a Photoflex MultiDisc 5 in 1 reflector (22"). The product is aweosme. It has 4 reflectors and one diffuser. The reflectors zip around the diffuser, and can collapse when ready to be put into the bag. For those who don't know, a reflector is a big shiny disc that reflects light onto a subjects face to reduce shadows and contrast. A diffuser passes a small amount of light through, diffusing harsh light and thereby reducing shadows and contrast. I got this for about $50 at B&H. All in all, fabulous purchase and I am sure they will be extremely useful in the near future. Next purchases: an extension tube and bigger bag, possibly a macro and longer telephoto lens. Then I am pretty much happy with my setup and should start settling into my stuff.

[GadgetComa]

Originally Posted by baseballboy828

Shoot in Aperture Priority. Always. Every time. Unless you're shooting water or fireworks and want to have a very specific shutter speed. Shooting in aperture priority mode (usually and A or Av or the dial). This makes you think with every shot. If you want a shallow depth of field or the fastest possible shutter speed, set the aperture to wide open (lowest number).

One of the things I love about my Nikon Coolpix 5700 is that I can leave it in full program mode (i.e., automatic) and use the function dial to adjust. As I spin the dial, it cycles through all possible shutter/aperture combinations that will work. I can see the shutter speed and aperture at all times, so I can select the best option for the composition. This saves me quite a bit of time.

[baseballboy828]

Well, today I leave for vacation in the Canadian rockies. We are going for a week to Banff and Jasper National Parks. I won't be checking email or the forums while gone, but if you need to tell me something, email me and I'll get it next Sunday. I'll post a flickr link when I finish post-processing when I get back. Anyhow, my taxi arrives in a half hour, so I need to get ready. See you guys when I get back. Also, a quick tip. If you spend any kind of money on a tripod, get a remote release. It really helps. Whether wired or wireless (like mine) it really helps.

[GadgetComa]

Originally Posted by baseballboy828

Well, today I leave for vacation in the Canadian rockies.

Have a great trip. Can't wait to see your photos.

I'm off to Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, and Grand Teton starting tomorrow. I too will be going through tech withdrawl since I won't have a laptop!

Enjoy the rest of August and I'll talk to you again in September.