Daily Photo Tips Archive: Page 5

28.Sep.11The first time you use a long telephoto lens, expect to see slightly disappointing results. Long lenses require careful focus, stable shooting conditions and carefully chosen shutter speed ranges, causing many photographers to goof most of their photos at first.

27.Sep.11Pinhole lenses, especially in shorter focal lengths, will often suit centred subjects. Since pinhole lenses tend to vignette strongly and show very little detail, whatever is in the centre of the frame will tend to attract the viewer's attention.

26.Sep.11Telephoto prime lenses are lenses from about 100mm to about 300mm (35mm equivalent). Depending on the manufacturer, these can be extremely sharp, though large and very expensive lenses. Used in sports, journalism, and many other fields, proper technique is critical in order to obtain sharp images.

25.Sep.11Photographic noise generally falls into two categories: luminescence noise and chroma noise. JPEG artifacts are not noise, as they are not randomly occurring patterns produced by a system intended to measure a natural signal.

24.Sep.11A clip-on lens hood will inhibit your ability to operate a polarizing filter. Clip on hoods block access to the sides of the filter, forcing the photographer to reach awkwardly into the front to change polarization orientation.

23.Sep.11Common lens designs will behave similarly, even across different brands or styles of camera. Though the quality of manufacturing affects a lens's performance, the lens design always produces certain key characteristics.

22.Sep.11Lowering ISO is only one way to reduce noise. Choice of subject, choice of composition and post-processing noise reduction methods also contribute to a low-noise photograph.

21.Sep.11When making baby photos that will be converted to black and white, consider the color of background objects. If you rely heavily on the red channel (as is common with black and white portrait conversions) any red background objects will be rendered quite brightly.

20.Sep.11Chroma noise displays as larger blotches of colour not originally present in a particular part of the photograph. Chroma noise is very distracting, but can often be completely eliminated by photography software.

19.Sep.11Super-wide prime lenses are lenses wider than about 20mm (35mm equivalent). These lenses are neither slow nor fast, but are easy to hand-hold at slow shutter speeds. They are sometimes soft in the corners at wide apertures and are used to greatly exaggerate the perspective of a scene.

18.Sep.11Normal or telephoto zoom lenses may include a macro setting, usually at the longer end of the zoom range. It may not be a 'true' macro (which produces a life-size, 1:1 image of its subject) but will probably come in handy anyway.

17.Sep.11Not all baby photos have to be close-ups! Placing a baby in context can show it interacting with the world around it and can hint at its personality more than a traditional portrait.

16.Sep.11Though most camera systems include many common types of lenses, the quality of a lens between brands will vary. Photographers have been known to switch camera brands simply because the destination brand makes an excellent model lens in a favourite focal length.

15.Sep.11Fish-eye prime lenses are generally wider than about 16mm (35mm equivalent), and have no correction for the distorting effects of wide-angle optics. They are usually moderately expensive and weighty, and are used for special-effects and unusual perspective work.

14.Sep.11Beanbags may be more effective than tripods for dampening vibrations in very long telephoto lenses. While even the most solid tripods allow the camera and lens to communicate vibrations through the metal structure, a beanbag absorbs vibrations and can produce a sharper final image.