Smokin OPs

That was the title of one of my favorite Bob Seger albums. I mean a vinyl album on which he sang Other People's hits. Today we appreciate other people's photography.

 

The Olympics often offer spectacular photographic opportunities if not engaging contests. The Big Picture once again has a great gallery of photos from the opening ceremonies.

Carry The Lenses You Want

I've read too many posts and/or articles lately about the lenses every photographer should carry. Oh, really? Somehow the person writing the article knows just what I'm hoping to shoot and can tell me what I should have in my bag? Will you tell me what to have for lunch, too?

I know what kind of images I want to grab and so I have chosen two lenses that I pretty much have in the bag at all times. If you recognize the Canon 70-200mm f 2.8 L IS above you've already assumed that one of those lenses is this beauty. WRONG.

These Photos Are RAW!!

Yesterday I coaxed you along your mode dial to the M mode. Now that wasn't so bad, was it? Well for at least thinking seriously about shooting manually today I'm going to show you how you can shoot in the RAW.

If your DSLR was purchased in the last 4-5 years you probably have the ability to select a file type called RAW.

I'll give you a comprehensive look at the difference between a RAW file and a more common JPEG file after the jump.

A clue: I edit my RAW files in software like this Adobe Camera RAW editor in which you see my granddaughter, Lily, and her friend, Weezie, the boxer.

Photography A La Mode Dial

Just a few notes today about that mode dial and why you should venture past the "auto-everything" mode.

As usual I'll be using a Canon example but what I have to offer is about photography regardless of the camera you choose. The basic idea is that you're not just flying without guidance when you choose that M setting.

The Value Of A High Priced Camera

I often have difficulty describing to others who may not think about photography most of their waking and sleeping hours what makes an expensive professional type of camera worth the money.

The Canon 1D Mark 4 is a $5,000 camera body, that's without a lens. The last time I bought a camera body with a lens on it was several years ago when I bought my Canon EOS Rebel XTi with an 18-55mm kit lens. I still have and use that camera but the Canon EOS 5D and 5D Mark 2 were purchased as bodies. I have a selection of lenses that I've purchased to do the kind of work I'm in to now.

How Firm Is Your Firmware?

If you know what firmware is you probably know that you can bring it up to date from time to time. Even I, with all my wisdom, must be reminded to check now and then to see if firmware updates are available for my cameras.

Firmware, for those or you who need reminding, is the operating system of your digital device. It's a small, fixed set of operating instructions that let your camera take a picture and transfer it to the memory card with the settings you make. If you've registered your camera you may be notified by email of the availability of firmware updates.

Many more devices in your house use firmware than you might think. Your hand held remote controls, for example, use firmware. You won't be able to update their firmware, in most cases, but you can update your camera's firmware using the memory card.

More Black & White Adventures

Photo editing software makes converting a photograph from color to black and white a rather enjoyable and adventurous exercise.  The software gives you the chance to make more than one black and white image in the same way you can change the look of the color photograph. Here's the photograph on which I'll be working this time.

 

This is the Bollinger dry dock on the West Bank of the Mississippi river seen from the Algiers Ferry just after sunset.

3 Types Of Perspective

If you've looked at my photographs much (and I hope you have or will) you'll see all kinds of perspective being used. The most common technique for doing that in my photographs is the use of converging lines.

Carnival Elsewhere

Just did a little searching, web style, and found several pictures from Carnivals in other places. All photographs are OP's.

Such as Brazil, of course.

4 Reasons To Consider An EVIL Camera

Horray! I got your attention with the catchy acronym. There's a new camera in town, folks, and its acronym is EVIL which stands for Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens. Here's one now.

More Fun With OP's

Here's another enjoyable site of 360 degree panoramas. Panoramas.dk includes 360s of New Year's Eve in Times Square and a 360 from atop Mt. Everest. Thanks to John Nack's blog for the link.

Winning News Photos

Take your time looking through this gallery of winning photographs from World Press Photo, a non-profit organization with offices in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

 

Here's the Winners Gallery from their annual contest. Thanks to Katrin Eismann's tweet for the link.

Looking through this gallery makes me feel like grabbing a camera and just running out to take photographs of anything I see. This being a particularly cold morning, I probably won't. It is, nevertheless, an interesting and often moving look at work from around the world which we might otherwise never see.

Canon is a sponsor. Here's Canon's report on the contest.

A Flash Worth The Money

This just in from the world of retail: The more you pay, the more you get. I did some test shots with different flashes to see if I  could get results that were easily displayed and explained. I used my Canon EOS Rebel XTi, which is now a rather out of date 10mp DSLR that's still a damn good light weight, easy to use camera.

 

I know several photographers who'll tell you never to use the pop-up flash on such a camera. To them I say "Never say never." Ignore the low resolution of this picture. The point is the flash exposure. It's not bad with the sync set to 1st curtain.

Creative Blurring

This morning a quick "How He Do Dat". I like the effect of blurring some elements in a picture to show motion while other things in the picture appear still. This is an example I shot in Rome in 2008.

 

If you've ever tried crossing a street in Rome you know the bravery of that guy on the median. BTW no one in Rome knows what a neutral ground is.

Interesting Sugestions

A quick post to begin today. I must attend a funeral this morning.

Here's an interesting article from Digital Photo Pro about the way we now use ISO as another exposure variable. In film days, for those who don't remember, you were stuck with the ISO of the film roll.

 

Click the pic

It's always interesting to see someone's views even if it's about something we already knew.

In case you haven't see it; here's a link to NOLA.com's Saints photo pages. 

Parade Photography

I'll be at the Saints' parade tonight but I'm going to enjoy it and just see if I get a few decent shots with my compact Canon SD780 IS. Many of you may want to do some parade shooting in darkness between now and next Tuesday so I'll share some of my thoughts on setting your DSLR for float photos.

 

The Who Dat Bowl Through Others' Lenses

I got nothing this morning except I want to see the highlights of the Saints' victory repeatedly so I'll pass along, in case you haven't seen them, galleries of Super Bowl photographs from publications outside the New Orleans area.

Click the pic.

A New Way To Publish My Pictures

I'm always interested in new technology, make that graphic technology. I just (make that finally) activated an account at photoshop.com and I'm trying to embed a slide show of my vacation photographs. You've see some of these already but there's a reason I'm doing this.

How'd You Do Dat?

I've been very happily receiving  some praise for a shot I took back in February of 2008. I was experimenting with the high ISO setting on my Canon EOS 5D, shooting at ISO 3200 at night. I was hoping to get a shot with very little noise.

I'll review my settings and show you the finished product that got good reviews during my December show at the Art Corner, in Slidell.

More OPs

Other People are doing work much like I might have been doing this week. My wife's client, DRC, is doing some debris removal work in Haiti and we were ready to join them there to help manage press contacts (my wife) and take stills and 5D Mk2 video (me) to document their work. Travel arrangements haven't worked out, yet, but here's an up to date gallery from The Big Picture. I'm ambivalent about going. It will be another adventure and a good test of my skills under far less than desirable conditions but there won't be any rest for at least 2 days and I'm just not as young as I was when I started taking photographs in desolate 3rd World places.

One reason the logistics haven't worked to get us to Haiti this week is that we'd have to stay overnight in Ft. Lauderdale to catch the company plane the following morning. It appears there's some kind of big deal football game going on in the Miami area that has all the rooms booked. When calling the area it seemed like we kept hearing "Who Dat" in the background.

Messing Around With Metering

The metering in your DSLR is what gives the computer in the camera the information it wants to compute the most acceptable exposure settings; shutter speed and aperture. The selections among the metering modes tell the computer what parts of the incoming image data to use or how much to use in that calculation.

 

I'll be using descriptions from the manual for my Canon EOS 5D Mk2 and images taken with that camera which is my favorite camera.

We're Back To The Back

Today more on those buttons on the back of your DSLR. Here's the back of the Olympus E520.

 

I haven't read the owner's manual for this camera but I can tell you about those buttons.

The Back Buttons On Your DSLR

By now you may have learned that DSLR you got for Christmas from front to back and be turning out pictures that amaze. If you're still getting used to the landscape of your DSLR's body, this week's blogs may be of some help. I want to talk about those buttons on the back of your DSLR and how they help you get some great photographs.

 

Here are those buttons on my Canon EOS 5D Mk2.