Learn photography with me

[nac]

I am not so sure about this will only be applicable for DSLR or large sensor cameras.

Yes, if we try this @ wide angle (28mm or wider) and about 3ft distance, the sheet would cover just a small part of the screen. And in this case if the focus misses a little, it's alright as our compact camera's DOF is deep. But if you zoom and fill the frame, we may find the deviation if there is any.

DSLR AF have developed a lot and with touch screen, photographers could easily focus the point where they want to focus. But still its better to know about our camera. So we go with the exercise and will see what we get.

 

[marvelousprashant]

Instead of lines I am using my Keyboard. Focus was on Letter "G" in both images

*imageshack.us/a/img9/2825/img6539r.jpg
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

 

[sujoyp]

nac as prashant said that excersice is easy for a dslr owner coz we can just select the centre focus point and point on the middle line....if it focusses anything else then it means camera is misfocussing and need recalibration...I will say calculate a 50mm in ur camera...like for a APSC DSLR 35mm lens equals to 50mm ...it is the view of our regular eyesight...just a guess

 

[nac]

Yeah, it's pretty tough to find any deviation from compact camera.

Lesson learned:
* At wide angle, from 1m distance my camera AF at different distance every time I press shutter button. Yet, I get acceptable sharpness. Crazy eh...
* Even if there is any deviation in POF from compact camera, we can't find it. As the author said, the deviation is not significant in most of the cases.

Wide angle to fill frame.

Spoiler

Exercise: 6 The Point of Focus
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*imageshack.us/a/img823/692/25335844.jpg

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EXERCISE: 7 Finding your slowest acceptable handheld shutter speed
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A standard guideline is that to avoid blurring caused by camera shake is to use shutter speed equal to or faster than the equivalent focal length when hand holding a camera. For example, use 1/50th of a second or faster when you are using 50mm lens. But in practice, it may differ and the image stabilization technology have developed. We may even get acceptable sharpness when using slower than the guideline. This exercise will help us to find our slowest handheld shutter speed.

Use tables to note down shutter speed and aperture. Take several exposures, especially @ slower shutter speed. Use texts as a subject, it works well for this purpose. Start taking photos using shutter speed from 1/2 sec to 1/125th of a second. Concentrate on holding the camera still when taking photographs.

Now, mount your camera in a tripod and start taking photos. Note that you should keep the tripod at the same spot from where you took your photographs handheld. You can use timer to avoid camera shake while pressing shutter button. Locking the mirror will help avoid the vibration caused by "mirror flap" during shutter release even when using tripod/remote shutter, especially at slower shutter speeds (this is for DSLR users).

Comparing photographs taken with tripod against handheld will help you find your slowest handheld shutter speed. You will notice gradually the pictures losing sharpness as you use slower shutter speed. Even if you are not a pixel peeper, zoom and fill your computer screen when comparing.

 

[lm2k]

*farm6.staticflickr.com/5463/8889200472_9ce6419e0a_o_d.jpg
aperture f/4
focal length - 50mm(35mm eq)
iso- auto
exposure program- shutter priority

first row is hand held without IS
second row is with IS
1)Assertion-- without IS we have to get shutter speed of 1/f to get shot sharp and without blur
conclusion after exercise -- arount 1/f +/- 1/10(depending on person) . first shot taken at 1/40 th of second is fine(but a bit under exposed) i found tha i can go upto 1/25 th of second hand held but % of successful shots are less then, later 1/20 and 1/10 are not usable as much.
2)Assertion-- IS provides longer hand held shutter speed(4 stops for sx150is)
conclusion after exercise -- for 50mm 1/4 th of a second is the limit(for my hands) so 1/25--- 1stop
1/12.5 --- 2 stops
1/6.5 -----3 stops
1/3.125 -----4 stops and i have got 1/4th sec so its pretty close.

 

[sujoyp]

donno about those techncial excersise but I can just say with IS I can take good handheld shot at 1/30 at long end and 1/20 wide angle with 18-55
with 55-200 I need 1/40 for nice shots at 55mm and 1/100 for 200mm tele end

My Tamron 17-50 f2.8 non IS can never take below 1/30

 

[nac]

Left hand side image - Kept the camera on a flat surface and took it and timer was on all the shutter speeds.
Right hand side image- Handheld and timer was on only for 1/2 sec and 1/4 sec

Spoiler

*imageshack.us/a/img713/8103/5sec.jpg
*imageshack.us/a/img198/8863/14thsec.jpg
*imageshack.us/a/img826/1833/113thsec.jpg
*imageshack.us/a/img4/7329/125thsec.jpg
*imageshack.us/a/img23/6650/160thsec.jpg
*imageshack.us/a/img15/6939/1125thsec.jpg

Focal - 28mm (35mm equiv) | Distance - ~ 2.5ft | Mode - Tv

I had to crop the image so close (what you see is just ~20% of the image), you know how the cropped image of a small sensor compact would look like. I can see as soon as I gone slower than the guideline speed (may be 1 stop, not more than that), image's sharpness started degrading.

To my surprise, it seems handheld shots are better than the tripod shots (yeah, I know we can't call that as a tripod I was expecting slower shutter speed shots would be as sharp as the handheld faster shutter speed image. But I don't why it's not?

Anybody know why???

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Sujoy, Good you knew the numbers.
Lm2k, 1/4th of a second. that's great pair of hands you have. Me and sujoy have shaky pair of hands just 1 stop slower than the guideline to get sharp image. No offense sujoy

 

[marvelousprashant]

From my past experience
1) I can keep my hands steady enough to get shots upto 1/10th seconds with IS on at wide end
2) When zoomed in I have got good shots at 1/25s. I was shooting in low light so ISO was at 1600 and sharpness suffered due to ISO more rather than due to stabilization efforts. At zoom end I am usually shooting people performing or animals or moon (which is too bright for long exposure so minimum shutter speed doesn't matter.
3) I set my camera at 0.4s and took images of fine print. Out of 12 images 2 were sharp... I guess this is one way if you are forced to shoot at slower speeds

 

[nac]

Exercise: 8 Photographing without a viewfinder
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It will be challenging to visualize without using viewfinder/live view for composition. Try it from ground level, above head level. Experiment taking shots and avoid taking random shots. And do evaluate your photographs.

It's a challenging exercise. And it is even more challenging when stuck at home There were times I was trying to photograph air craft, birds when they were flying on the sky. I zoom all the way and try to bring the subject in the live view, it was hard even when using the live view. I had to zoom out and find the bird and again zoom in.

I have wondered sometimes how the journalist, wedding photographers take those shot from above their head level.

Did you know?
Apollo astronauts used camera with no viewfinders and made wonderful photographs.

I would like to go out on the street for this exercise. But I don't know what I am gonna do...

 

[marvelousprashant]

This one is a surprise.
I would like to propose an exercise if that is already not there. To find out viewfinder accuracy. What we see in viewfinder/screen is not exactly what we get. Usually the image is slightly larger and sometimes twigs etc are there close to edges and I have to crop the image

 

[sujoyp]

@nac yes my hands r not super steady and nor my mind is soo I keep simple rules like 1/f=shutter speed and with IS around 2/f of shutter speed ....when u actually go out to take shot other then landscapes u never have time to think of a million rules

yes prashant our viewfinder are not 100% one....I think D7100 and full frame like D800 have 100% viewfinders

 

[Professor X]

Awesome thread.

 

[nac]

Prashant, We can see that in our camera spec. Up to my knowledge, almost all the digital cameras have 100% live view coverage (there may be few exceptions) and camera which has EVF also have 100% view finder coverage. But as you said, 100% view finder coverage (optical) is only available for high end cameras.

 

[sujoyp]

nac EVF and live view are very close in tech and may have 100% viewfinder ...but I know it for sure that in OVF some have 95%,96% 99% and 100% view finders

 

[nac]

I think it's the first time that I didn't want them to know that I am taking photograph. Just wanted the subject in the frame. There were some mis hits. Roughly one in three shots were okish...

Exercise: 8 Photographing without a viewfinder
*img443.imageshack.us/img443/6334/img0911a.jpg

 

[icebags]

^^ interesting practice. when u get pro in this, may be you will be able to hang the camera with neck-strarp and shoot some interesting street photographs from ur belly, with the timer on. people will never suspect.

 

[lm2k]

@nac- even with IS on keeping 50mm focal length(35mm eq) 1/4 was last speed i could handle but the percentage of of shots comming sharp will also depend on other conditions like the effectiveness of the IS system and vibrations of the user's hands(which varry alot), considering 4 stops of IS at 28mm , 0.4 sec should not be a problem.

ok for the second exercise, i was out today but didnt got any shot worth posting apart from these some of my old that i had taken when i tried to follow this book for the first time.
problem is that we(I mostly)mostly dont find a situation where placement of camera should be like its viewfinder is not feasible, but here are two shots from my side
1)*farm9.staticflickr.com/8407/8902032152_db52974eb2_z.jpg

i had posted a similar photo in "the photography thread" as my first post but this one is different not the same.
camera used - canon a3200is in program mode, iso-80, whitebalance was automatic.
camera was held facing the sky and some 10 shots were taken after evaluation of the shots taken, this one was okish. these flowers(inflorescence to be exact) hang downwards towards ground.

2)*farm6.staticflickr.com/5338/8901876020_e11ca5b366_z.jpg

a shot of a teeny couple taken at the katraj zoo
camera used- samsung D760,iso was 80 in program mode.
camera was held at the waist level so if some one saw me, they would see my face first(since we first see face then other) and ignore the camera, else seeing the camera people get aware of being watched.

i will try to get some recent shots and update my post with pics.

 

[nac]

^ I was looking at other forums too to get to know about how people do this in real time. There were tips for how to keep the camera less visible...

Sujoy, I agreed on that part. Most of the DSLR doesn't have 100% OVF coverage. 7D and up for Canon and D300s/D7000 and up for Nikon.

lm2k, Both are good for a start esp. the second one... Not tilted, no cutting out limbs, heads *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

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The last exercise needs little more practice and exercise. As of now, just we consider that this chapter is covered and move on the next. Do this exercise whenever you have opportunity to do.

Will see you guys tomorrow with the new chapter.

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CHAPTER 3
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The exercises we are gonna see will help us develop ours skills in perception and composition.

It's good if you have a camera with all the controls from exposure to focus. If you don't have one, go on with the one you have. Use normal focal length (~50mm), it's easy when learning to perceive things and evaluate our composition. We will need tripod for long exposure shots. If you don't have a camera/lens to focus as close as 1.5ft, get accessories to do so.

Evaluating is an important part of exercises, so do it carefully and delibrately. You can even post here to let the people critic about it.

 

[nac]

We will start the main content of this book today with POINTS. Are you guys ready???

 

[marvelousprashant]

We will start the main content of this book today with POINTS. Are you guys ready???

yes professor