Auto ISO: When Is It Useful?

Many new digital SLR cameras now come with a feature called Auto ISO, which automatically adjusts the ISO sensitivity of the camera based on pre-programed algorithms and user preferences such as maximum allowed ISO and minimum shutter speed.

Is this feature useful?

The typical support argument for the Auto ISO feature goes like this: Camera lenses have the maximum aperture limitation. At a given ISO,  the required shutter speed to achieve proper exposure may be too slow to stop motion or avoid camera shake even when the aperture is at its maximum setting. In this case, the ISO setting of the camera needs to be raised until a usable shutter speed can be obtained. This previously human-involved process can be automated by the Auto ISO feature.

Still need to see some more convincing arguments or have some questions answered about the usefulness of the Auto ISO feature? Professional photographer Steve Simon shared his thoughts on the Auto ISO feature in Nikon DSLR camera in two discussion threads on Flickr:

Posted in Online Resources, Tips and techniques on December 30th, 2009. No Comments.

Is Your Old Flash Safe to Use on Your New Camera?

Starblitz Flash, front

It is not the safety of the photographer but the safety of the camera at stake here. Some flashes use very high voltages in the trigger circuit that may be high enough to fry your camera’s circuit board. If you are temped to buy cheap flashes from garage sale or off eBay to expand your strobist arsenal, check this site first to make sure it is safe to use on your camera or other triggering devices’ hotshoe.

If the flash you are interested in is not listed, you can follow the instructions (scroll down until you see How to Check the Trigger Voltage) to measure it yourself. My Starblitz 200 DNX isn’t listed in there. The voltage on the sync terminal is ~11 volts. I put it on my Nikon D200 and it works just fine. According to Nikon D200 manual, the accessory shoe on the camera can support up to 250 volts.

Posted in Flash photography, Online Resources on December 24th, 2009. No Comments.

iPhoneography – The iPhone Photography & Videography Blog

The camera on the iPhone doesn’t take great pictures but it doesn’t prevent people from loving it either. The reasons?

  • It is available at any time. I can leave my Nikon DSLR camera at home but I won’t leave home without my cell phone, which is currently the iPhone.
  • Photo taking is now spontaneous. Whenever anything catches my eyes, I pull out the iPhone and snap a picture.
  • It is easy to be creative. Part of the reason for that is the tens of photo-related apps you can find in the App Store.

For all the iPhone shutterbugs out there, here is a good blog I just discovered (I know, I have been living under a rock for quite some time): iPhoneography. This blog covers all kinds of stuff related to iPhone photography and videography. You will find news, showcases, new photo app introductions, app reviews, etc.

Social network presence

Posted in Online Resources, Photography blogs on December 12th, 2009. No Comments.

Pro Tips: How to Photograph Children

Canon EOS News November 2009 issue (You can read the online version here) hit my inbox today. The Canon Quick Tip section has a link to some great tips about how to photograph children.

The tips are offered by professional photographer Heather Lickliter based in Athens, GA. Her business, Stylized Portraiture, specialize in Maternity, Newborn, Baby, Infants, Children, Toddlers, Fairy Tale, Princess, Fairy, Boutique, Couture, Storybook, Studio, Seniors, Weddings, and Events Photography.

The three part series has only two of them published so-far.  In Photographing Children, Part 1: Working with Different Age Groups, Heather started with some general advices on composition. It is not about how to pose the children using instructions. It is about how to capture the most nature moments by selecting the proper shooting angle, by anticipation, and by selectively drawing or not drawing the attention of the children. Photography is not all about skills in camera handling. It has a lot to do with how to interact with people and how being patient, positive, and creative helps with the process.

After the general advices, she went into details on the setup techniques in working with children of different age groups. There are lots of great tips! The best way to get great photos of your children, she said at the end, is to “think like a child, whatever their age. Be close to the ground, watch the world around you, and be happy. If you’re having fun, then so are your kids, and the photos will show that!”

In Photographing Children, Part 2: The Canon You Carry, Heather first offered some tips on how to choose proper camera settings such as aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, followed by advices on choosing props and wardrobes. According to the article, she had spent $7,900 on Canon gears but you really don’t have to. Most of the tips can be applied to point-and-shoot compact cameras but for the best results a DSLR is highly recommended. Of course, it doesn’t have to be a Canon.

The third part, Lighting and Post Processing Techniques, has not yet been published.

Further reading

Posted in Online Resources, Tips and techniques on November 19th, 2009. No Comments.

Michael Rubin Demos Capture NX2 and RAW Workflow on Videos

Nikon’s Senior Product and Software Manager, Michael Rubin, has been touring US cities to show people how to use Nikon Capture NX and how to establish a RAW workflow using Nikon Transfer and Nikon ViewNX. Now one of the places he gave classes, B&H, puts a complete set of the class videos online. The total length of the video is approximately 2 hours. So make yourself comfortable and enjoy!

Posted in Digital photography, Online Resources on April 23rd, 2009. 2 Comments.

Best Strobist Resources

Strobist, run by a guy named David Hobby, is the most popular blog for learning how to use off-camera flash. With the explosive growth of the digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera market in the recent years, the popularity of flash lighting has also seen a drastic boost.

This phenomena has caught the attention of main stream media. In April 2008, David and his blog was featured on USA Today in an article titled In a flash, Strobist blog about lighting photos hit it big.

A year later, in a recent article on USA Today, Photographers eager for flash of knowledge, Jefferson Graham illustrated the photographers thirst for knowledge of flash lighting using the example of Joe McNally’s new book, The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes (Voices That Matter), which has quickly climbed to the #1 best seller in the Digital Photography category at Amazon.com. Not only flash manufacturers like Canon and Nikon, but also some small flash accessory makers have benefited from the popularity. The author of the article talked about LumiQuest, PocketWizard, HonlPhoto, and others.

Why is off-camera flash becoming so popular? First of all, it produces beautiful results. Secondly, you don’t have to speed much money to achieve that although I have to admit that you could easily end up spending more than you thought. However the point of this post is not to tell you what to buy but show you where to find the best resources on the Internet to learn the techniques of off-camera flash and flash photography in general. Read More…

Posted in Online Resources on April 9th, 2009. No Comments.

30 Photo-Friendly US Cities Ranked

PopPhoto Magazine just ranked the 30 most populous US cities by their photo-friendliness. It is not a ranking of the most photogenic US cities, but photo-friendly cities. The editors based their ranking on 10 factors that matter to photographers such as the average percentage of sunny days a year, the number of museums and galleries that show photography, and the cost of visiting, etc.  They even counted private security firms, since they’ve found that the more rent-a-cops, the harder it can be to take pictures in public. 

The ranking will appear on May 2009 issue of PopPhoto Magazine but it is currently available online. Based on the weighted scores of 10 categories, Denver, CO has been ranked as the most  photo-friendly city while Detroit, MI is at the bottom of the list.

Posted in Online Resources on April 4th, 2009. No Comments.

Canon’s Chuck Westfall Answers Questions March 2009

In the March issue of Tech Tips, Chuck Westfall, Technical Advisor for Canon’’s Consumer Imaging Group, answers quite a few interesting questions for Canon users.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II captures video clips (HD or SD) at precisely 30.00 fps, while other A/V devices confirming to North American standard record and playback at 29.97 fps, which will eventually leads to audio out of sync problem if both are used in the same timeline. There is no easy solution from Canon except either transcoding the EOS 5D Mark II footage to 29.97 fps or stretching the 5D Mark II footage on a 29.97fps timeline. However some users have found that  reconforming to 29.97 (no render needed since this is only a change to the meta data) is all it takes to make the audio sync a non-issue in Cinema Tools.

There are questions that can be answered quickly by reading the product manuals but some lazy people choose to ask anyway.

In the comment section, there are users who got upset because their brand new Canon EOS 5D Mark II cameras had to be sent in for service within weeks of purchase due to hot pixels in video mode and “Err 20″. As expected, the real Chuck wouldn’t address directly to those complaints but the FAKE one would.

Nikon Capture NX users may complain about its slowness or strange user interface, but apparently the Canon DPP software cannot even fix tilted horizon… Some has suggested Canon stop making its own software that can produces the best image quality but suffers badly in usability and functionality, but it looks like Canon will not, just like Nikon.

Read: Tech Tips

Posted in Online Resources on March 29th, 2009. 3 Comments.
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