Entertainment

How to Photograph a Sunrise

noreply@blogger.com (The jay entertainment) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 06:44:14 PDT

Photograph a Sunrise

The alarm clock buzzes. You crack an eye open and see the light blinking at you. 4:45am. After a few moments, your groggy mind remembers why you set your alarm in the first place. You groan, and after another minute, roll out of bed.
You take a quick peek out the window. Still dark out. But it won’t be for long. You quickly dress in multiple layers, pulling out a pair of fingerless gloves and beanie cap. You pack a breakfast bar and thermos full of coffee. Then you double-check your equipment list:
1. Camera [no brainer]. Check.
2. 24-70 lens [favorite for this activity]. Check.
3. Tripod and quick release [a necessity]. Check.
4. Shutter release [makes for clear pictures]. Check.
5. Cleared cards [to take as many as you can]. Check.
By 5:00am, you are on your way out the door and headed out your driveway.

You know exactly where you are headed; peak about 20 minutes from your home. After unpacking your equipment, you face the Eastern horizon. Already the golden glow of the sun is beginning to appear. The fog is swirling around the base of the rolling green hills. You smile. It’s going to be a beautiful sunrise.
You place your camera on the tripod. Pause to confirm your settings:
Shutter Speed (TV) = 20 seconds
The early morning light is soft and diffused, so you need a longer shutter speed to let in more light, otherwise your picture will be underexposed .
ISO = 100
With a long shutter speed, you don’t need your sensor to be more sensitive to the light. And with a low ISO, you have a higher dynamic range for stronger intensity of color.
White balance = Shade
Morning light is cooler in color tones. You know that you can correct this with your white balance, so you shoot on shade so the sunrise feels golden and warm.
File type = RAW
You want to go home and post-process your image to produce something really sweet. Shooting in RAW extends your editing capabilities. And since your file size is larger, you

now have the ability to order a 20×24 print for your grandparents’ 50th anniversary present.
You start shooting into the sunrise, pressing the shutter every 30 seconds or so after evaluating your image. The colors begin to intensify. You like what you are getting, but soon, the sun has crested the hill on the horizon, and you stop. There\ has got to be something cooler to shoot.
You turn and look to the left, your breath catching in your throat. The sun is lighting the surrounding hills perfectly, and the fog is illuminated by the intense highlights. Quickly, you adjust your shutter speed and fire off a few shots. In just a few moments, you stare at your LCD screen. A smile spreads across your face. Got it.
Satisfied with the results of your sunrise shoot, you head back home. After a mid morning nap, you take the time to upload your pictures. Just as you hoped, that last shot fulfills all your expectations.
One week later, a package arrives at your door. Carefully, you open the wrapping. In your hands, you hold the product of your previous early morning adventure.
Loss of sleep. An early morning in the cold. A 40-minute drive.
Worth it?

Source: digital photography school

Best Seller

noreply@blogger.com (The jay entertainment) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 06:48:34 PDT

Lebih dari 50 Juta Kamera SLR Laku

Banyak diantara photografer mulai dari tingkat amatir sampai profesional menggunakan kamera besutan dari Canon itu, beragam alasanpun dari mereka mengapa menggunakan kamera dari Canon. Ada yang memang alasan Harga, Spesifikasi Fitur, Kekuatan dll. Seiring dengan perkembangan zaman dan teknologi yang semakin canggih, canonpun meningkatkan produktivitas dan kualitasnya agar bisa meningkatkan angka penjualannya serta bisa lebih diminati konsumen dengan kualitas jepret yang lebih baik lagi tentunya.

Lima puluh tahun silam, Canon mulai menjual kamera single-lens reflex (SLR). Pada Mei 1959 itu, perusahaan Jepang ini meluncurkan Canon Flex, kamera SLR 35mm pertamanya. Tahun demi tahun mereka mengembangkan teknologinya. Hari ini, sudah lebih dari 50 juta kamera SLR Canon laku terjual. Rinciannya: lebih dari 39 juta unit untuk kamera SLR berbasis film, dan lebih dari 14 juta unit untuk kamera Digital SLR. Banyak yah?

Ingin tahu sejarah mereka bukan? Inilah rekaman sejarah kamera SLR Canon.

Setelah Canon Flex, baru tahun 1971 Canon menghadirkan inovasi barunya, dalam bentuk kamera profesional pertama, F1. Lima tahun kemudian, dirilislah model AE-1. Ini merupakan kamera SLR pertama di dunia yang memiliki CPU built-in. Satu dasawarsa berikutnya muncul T90 yang laris manis di pasar.

Lalu Maret 1987, Canon meluncurkan EOS 650, kamera SLR pertama di dunia yang dilengkapi AF (autofocus) dengan dukungan electronic control. Seri EOS inilah yang sangat memengaruhi perkembangan dan pertumbuhan kamera SLR yang menggunakan AF sampai detik ini. Model SLR pun dibagi dua: profesional dan entry-level. Jagoannya adalah EOS-1 yang terbit tahun 1989, dan EOS 500 yang muncul tahun 1993.

Era digital ditabuh Canon pada tahun 2000 melalui EOS D30. Moto mereka adalah cepat, mudah, dan bidikan berkualitas. Sensor CMSO dan prosesor gambar DIGIC pun dikembangkan secara konsisten. Begitu pula lensa seri EF untuk melengkapi kamera digital SLR seri EOS.

Tahun 2008, sebagai pemimpin pasar Digital SLR di dunia, Canon memperkenalkan 4 model DSLR baru, termasuk EOS450D yang menduduki posisi teratas penjualan di Jepang dan di pasar internasional lainnya. Saat ini sudah hadir Canon EOS 5D Mark II sebagai kamera Digital SLR yang mengusung teknologi full high-definition video recording yang menjadi pembicaraan hangat di dunia fotografi internasional.

sumber : tekno.kompas.com

Exposure,Did you know body?

noreply@blogger.com (The jay entertainment) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 06:51:19 PDT

Banyak orang masih bingung dengan istilah ini. Banyak yang salah konsep. Bahkan ada banyak pula yang tidak tahu sama sekali.
Exposure yang tepat sangat penting dalam mendapatkan mutu foto yang bagus. Banyak orang terjebak dalam filosofi “nanti bisa diperbaiki di komputer”. Seharusnya itu dijadikan sebagai senjata pemungkas, tatkala apa yang anda pikirkan atau konsepkan tidak bisa sepenuhnya diciptakan dengan kamera anda.
Memperbaiki foto di komputer sebetulnya bukanlah jawaban yang paling tepat.
Dalam kenyataannya, setiap penyesuaian tones yang dilakukan di komputer, membuat foto lebih terang ataupun lebih gelap, menambah kontras, cropping, dst., akan mengurangi jumlah pixel penyusun foto. Jadi sebetulnya, olah digital itu hanya akan menurunkan mutu gambar karena akan membuang beberapa komponen data
Jadi hal yang terbaik yang harus dilakukan adalah melakukannya di kamera, memotret dengan setingan yang benar sesuai dengan konsep yang diinginkan.
Metering
Meter di kamera di design agar bisa mengukur kekuatan cahaya di sekitar objek, dan memberikan informasi kombinasi setingan shutter speed dan aperture agar didapatkan exposure yang paling tepat.
Meter di kamera membaca semua data tonal scence objek, seperti seberapa gelap dan seberapa terang, dan secara rata-rata akan disajikan dalam sebuah saran exposure setting berupa garis dengan grafik yang berubah-ubah saat kamera diarahkan ke tempat terang atau gelap. Meter kamera mencoba menemukan nilai rata-rata, dengan pendekatan ke nilai 18% tone abu-abu. Dan memang terbukti, untuk kebanyakan situasi, meter kamera cukup bisa diandalkan.
Tipe-tipe metering
Ada 3 tipe metering:
1. Matrix atau evaluative metering
Tipe metering ini membagi scene ke dalam beberapa (atau banyak) segmen yang masing-masing oleh kamera akan dianalisa brightness-nya dan kemudian dibandingkan dengan sebuah database yang sudah diprogram sebelumnya - database ini berisi ribuan type photographic scences. Dan hebatnya, semua itu bisa dilakukan oleh kamera dalam waktu singkat, bahkan instant. Matrix/Evaluate metering modes, cukup bisa diandalkan, pengukurannya cukup akurat dan sangat berguna khususnya saat di situasi anda menggunakan mode auto-exposure, atau di saat situasi cahaya sering berubah-ubah.
2. Spot Metering
Spot meter membaca brightness dari sebuah titik di tengah-tengah frame. Dengan mode ini, memungkinkan anda untuk medapatkan informasi exposure yang tepat dari sebuah area yang kecil. Spot metering sangat tepat untuk anda yang sudah terbiasa dengan pilihan mode manual saat memotret, dan punya waktu untuk presisi pengukuran yang sangat akurat.
3. Incident Metering
Yang dimaksudkan dengan incident metering adalah sebuah alat tambahan yang fungsinya khusus mengukur cahaya di objek. handheld meter ini dapat memberikan pengukuran cahaya yang jauh lebih akurat daripada apa yang kebanyakan kamera bisa sajikan. Alat semacam ini juga bisa mengukur meter dari sinar-sinar ambient dari scene. Dan alat itu akan menginformasikan setting seperti apa yang perlu anda lakukan di kamera.
beberapa kelemahan penggunaan handheld meter ini.
pertama, anda perlu mengeluarkan biaya extra untuk membeli alat ini.
kedua, anda tidak bisa mendekatkan alat ini ke objek2 tertentu. seperti pemain konser di panggung.

Photograhy Basic

noreply@blogger.com (The jay entertainment) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 06:52:37 PDT

Photograhy
Ever wonder what it is that actually makes a camera work? This tutorial will cover the innerworkings of a camera, and introduce you into photography basics and the expansive world of taking better photographs.
To take beautiful photographs you do not need an expensive camera and a bag full of equipment. What is important is the photographer’s ability to see his/her surrounding and use knowledge and personal feel for the subject.
Being the first article in a series, this lesson is meant to only cover the basics of photography . The idea with this series is to get people more interested in photography, awaken creativity and hopefully help people enjoy this hobby even more. introduction to Photography

The word “photography” is French but is based on Greek word and literarily means “drawing with light“. That’s what photography is all about, without light — no photograph. The art of photography is basically seeing and balancing the light.

The illustration to the left shows the path the light travels from the object to the sensor (or film in non-digital cameras).

First the light needs to go through the lens, which is a series of differently shaped pieces of glass. If the focus is good then the light will meet on the sensor.

The aperture is placed inside the lens and is basically an opening that controls how much light reaches the sensor.

On most modern cameras the shutter is placed inside the camera body. This piece of mechanics is what controls how long time the sensor is exposed to the light.

The sensor is a very sensitive plate where the light is absorbed and transformed into pixels. As you can see on this illustration, the image the sensor picks up is actually upside down, just like our eyes sees the world, the processor inside the camera then flips it.

Aperture

The aperture sits inside the lens and controls how much light passes through the lens and onto the sensor. A large aperture lets through very much light and vice versa. Knowing how the aperture affects the photograph is one of the most important parts of photography — it affects the amount of light, depth of field, lens speed, sharpness and vignetting among other things. I will talk more about these things in later parts of this series.

F-numbers, a mathematical number that expresses the diameter of the aperture, are an important part of understanding how the aperture and exposure work. All f-numbers have a common notation, such as ƒ/5.6 for an f-number of 5.6. There are a set numbers of f-numbers that are used in photography, there are several different scales but the “standard” full-stop f-number scale is this:

ƒ/# 1.4 2 2.8 4 5.6 8 11 16 22 32

These are known as full-stop f-numbers. If you decrease the f-number with one full-stop, like ƒ/4 to ƒ/2.8, the amount of light that passes through will double. If you increase the f-number with one full-stop, like ƒ/5.6 to ƒ/8, only half the amount of light will reach the sensor.

There can be several f-numbers between the ones above — depending on what scale is being used. The most common one is a 1/3 scale, which means that every third step is a full-stop, and thus giving you two settings between every full-stop. For example between ƒ/8 and ƒ/11 you will find ƒ/9 and ƒ/10. This can be rather confusing at first, so here’s a short reminder:

A higher f-number = a smaller aperture = less light

A lower f-number = a larger aperture = more light

Shutter

The shutter is what controls how long the sensor is exposed to the light. The longer the shutter is open the more light can be captured by the sensor. A fast shutter speed will result in “freezing” a moving object and a slow shutter speed will let you capture the motion of a moving object.

There is a scale of stops for the shutter speeds just like for the aperture, below are the full-stops.

1/1000 s 1/500 s 1/250 s 1/125 s 1/60 s 1/30 s 1/15 s 1/8 s 1/4 s 1/2 s 1 s

And just as with the aperture, the shutter speed is often on a 1/3 scale, giving your two steps in between every full-stop. For example between 1/60s and 1/125s you will find 1/80s and 1/100s.

The two primary factors which control exposure are shutter speed and aperture. We will cover these things in greater detail in other lessons.

See [LINK TO EXPOSURE TUTORIAL] for an article on how exposure works.

ISO

The ISO speed (the name comes from the International Organization for Standardization) is a measure of the film speed, or its sensitivity to light. With digital cameras the ISO affects the sensor instead of the film, but the principal is the same. A low ISO speed requires a longer exposure and is referred to as slow, a high ISO speed requires less time to give the same exposure and is therefore referred to as fast. One step in the ISO equals one full-stop, so the ISO is not on a 1/3 scale — film can be found with 1/3 ISO speeds, but it’s uncommon in the digital world. These are the most common ISO speeds.

ISO 50 100 200 400 800 1600 3200

On 35mm film, a film with high ISO speed had much more grain than a slower film — but the modern sensors don’t create the same grain with high ISO speeds. Instead it creates noise. The digital noise is not as favorable as the film grain and can destroy a photo if it’s too visible (the same goes with the grain, but it’s effect was more subtle and often more liked).

If light is no problem, then always use a low ISO number but if you’re indoors with bad light or other conditions when you find the combination of aperture/shutter not to be enough the ISO speed can be a great asset. New digital sensors are constantly developed and the noise levels with high ISO speeds are decreasing with every new release.

thanks to Fedrik

Links for 2009-03-17 [Bloglines Clip Blog]

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:00:00 PDT

How to Photograph a Sunrise
URL: How to Photograph a Sunrise