4 Steps for Choosing Your Next Lens

Sweet article about buying a new lens .....what lens and how to choose it ... this is just a teaser ....

1. Explore Your Needs?

Here are a bunch of gut feelings you may have that drive you for a new lens.

• My lenses are not fast enough - I miss great shots in dark places.
• My lenses take too long to focus - I miss all those great action shots
• My lenses don't have enough focal length / are not wide enough - I wish I could shoot from further away or I wish I could squeeze more into the frame.
  

2. Research

I started by googling "Nikon portrait lens". I got back a bunch of links that really helped me focus on my options. (Image by borghetti)

This link from wlcastleman.com was a great help as it showed some of the more common options for portraiture lenses.

3. Consult

I rang the phone of every photographer I know either amateur or pro and asked about their first hand experience with the mentioned lenses. Nothing beats hearing first hand. I asked:
- Are they fast?
- Are they sharp
- Are they fun to work with? (Totally subjective, still very important).
- What a comfy working distance?
- Anything else?

4. Decide

For the full article visit
http://www.diyphotography.net/4-steps-for-choosing-your-next-lens

DYNAMIC RANGE

As we look around a scene, the irises within our eyes can adjust to changing conditions as we focus on regions of varying brightness—both extending the dynamic range where we can discern detail, and improving the local contrast



read it all : http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/techniques_dynamic-range.htm

DEPTH OF FIELD

Our eyes can choose to have any particular object in perfect focus, whereas a lens has to choose a specific focal point and what photographers call a “depth of field,” or the distance around the focal plane which still appears to be in sharp focus.

read it all : http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/techniques_depth-of-field.htm

FIELD OF VIEW

By looking around a scene, we are able to encompass a broader field of view than may be possible with a given lens. To mimic this behaviour, and to enhance image detail, one could point the camera in several adjacent directions for each exposure. These could then be combined digitally in a way that accounts for lens distortion and perspective— producing a single, seamless image. This is technique is also referred to as photo stitching or a digital panorama.

read it all : http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/techniques_field-of-view.htm

PHOTOSHOP : CURVES

The Photoshop curves tool is perhaps the most powerful and flexible image transformation, yet it may also be one of the most intimidating. Since photographers effectively paint with light, curves is central to their practice because it affects light's two primary influences: tones and contrast. Tonal curves are also what give different film types their unique character, so understanding how they work allows one to mimic any film-- without ever having to retake the photograph.






learn more at http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/photoshop-curves.htm

Using "Levels" in Photoshop

Levels is a tool in image editing programs (such as Photoshop) which can move and stretch the brightness levels of an image histogram. It has the power to adjust brightness, contrast, and tonal range by specifying the location of complete black, complete white, and midtones in a histogram. Since every photo's histogram is unique, there is no single way to adjust the levels for all your photos. A proper understanding of how to adjust the levels of an image histogram will help you better represent tones in the final image.

Wanna know more ? ........ http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/levels.htm

Some cool pics from over at Vertus

So i found those sweet pics on a blog called Vertus fluid mask , and thought maybe id share them with u guys .... Just for ur viewing pleasure , no techniques here ....

Sometimes they can be funny, sometimes thought provoking, other times they just mess with your mind. They’ll always take your breath away though and make you wonder at the skills of the people that created them. The following images are our favourite Photoshopped images. If you’ve seen better we’d love to hear from you.






Pics from Vertus fluid mask blog .

My personal favourite Photographer

This is my first time to post a link to some photographer's work ...


but this is no ordinary photographer ..


His name is Rarindra Prakarsa .. A semipro photographer from Jakarta, Indonesia


his game is photography .. but this is no ordinary photography .. it's magic .. his work is almost music .. colours, lighting and story ... all working in a tremendous harmony to make each photo a masterpiece ... and every and each photo is a whole world ... something out of this tired old planet ...


The most amazing thing is .. he is not using professional models (as far as I could see) .. his subjects are the poor people he meets on his quest .. and his theatre is the nature of his poor country .. yet no fancy photographer with expensive studio equipment and beautiful hot models can do what he can ...


sorry for the long speech ... please check his work here :


http://photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=2231437&include=all





these are some of his work:

LOCAL CONTRAST ENHANCEMENT

Local contrast enhancement attempts to increase the appearance of large-scale light-dark transitions, similar to how sharpening with an "unsharp mask" increases the appearance of small-scale edges. Good local contrast gives an image its "pop" and creates a three-dimensional effect-- mimicking the look naturally created by high-end camera lenses. Local contrast enhancement is also useful for minimizing the effect of haze, lens flare, or the dull look created by taking a photograph through a dirty window.

High Local Contrast



High Resolution


Both Qualities




How to get that result ? check it here : http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/local-contrast-enhancement.htm

News News News : Nours Photo Course

So i got this on my mail . Anyone interested in learning more bout photography and living in cairo may find this useful ...

Dear Friends,

On behalf of the EECA, the owner of " Marsam Al Qalaa "
We are pleased to announce our new photography course that starts 15 March 2008

Instructor : Architect and Photographer Nour El Refai

Duration : 6 Sessions and 2 Fieldtrips

Fees : 600 L.E.

Place : Marsam Al-Qalaa, (10, Darb Al-Labbanah, Citadel Square, behind
El Sultan Hassan mosque, Cairo)

Find attached all the details of the course

Limited to 20 participants
To register for the course call : 0101204597

Thanks
EECA Team

Map for the Sat CCC outing by mr Farouk Moussa

Mr Farouk Moussa a member of the CCC kindly went through the trouble of giving us a nice labelled map to the Sat group outing at the Waraa Island in the nile in Embaba . In case u guys find this hard to see , just click the pic for a larger version . ... Basically if ure taking the subway / metro , u take metro shobra , and go down at Koleyet el Zeraaa Station and follow that red line i guess . Hoping u enjoy the shooting trip ... Heres the original email :

Dear friends

pls. find attached a simple map for the location of geziret el warrak as i promised,

hope to be fine for forward by you to all ccc members

my best regards

farouk moussa

feero1@hotmail.com
010 10 72 481

CAIRO CAMERA CLUB (CCC at CIC)

CIC (Contemporary Image Collective)
20 Safeya Zaghloul Street, Monira, Cairo
3 minutes walk from the Saad Zaghloul metro station near Garden City.
Off Kasr El Einy st.

THANK U MR FAROUK ...

A lil more watching , a lil less reading

For all those of u who grew up in cities , or just anyone who enjoys the urban lanscape , this is a great place to enjoy the beauty of urban life ....Enjoy Jimmies works at CORNERSHOTS.com ....

Talent Spot : SARA YEHIA

Its been a while since weve had a talent spot post , but ure gonna have to excuse me , i havent exactly had a lot of time to scout lately . But were here and were back , introducing a talented young artist . U may have seen some of her works if uve attended the moments of life exhibit .

Sara Yehia :

i wasnt lucky enough to attend the moments of life exhibit , and when i was told about Sara by my friend and blogmate Ali Aboujazia i didnt know she was the one exhibiting at the moments of life but her works immediately caught my eye .

The colors , the moods , the ideas . They have this sad streak , and a prevailent romantic air to most of them . Im usually left looking into her works and not just looking at them , and my brain wanders off .




Still young and has a lot more to give , heres the link to this talented artist SARA YEHIA .

Damon Winter's site , enjoy the art ....

For those of u who arent in the mood to read tonight , and just wanna watch some sweet photography , heres a place to feast ur eyes ....

Damon Winters site .....

enjoy ..... :)

Ed Mc Culloch's phone convo with Chase Jarvis

A place i love is Ed McCulloch's blog , his posts are short and straight to the point and always worth the read .... Its like a daily read for me , and i think it should be for u guys too ..... A small teaser here ... :

-February 2007- Notes form Chase’s phone call-

• Stay in tune to what’s happening in the world of photography
• Stay up to date on current technology
• Stay away from negative things and people
• Do what you say your going to do; appointments, email, phone calls
• Always under promise and over deliver

The full post at Mc Culloch's blog .....

Dg 28 : Loosing Bad Background

U know i love a place called dg28 . A great place to learn a couple of cool photo tricks .... heres a teaser trailer :


When you have to walk through one of the most impressive buildings in central London, out of the back door to where they keep the broken furniture and litter bins to shoot your picture... you feel a little hard done by!

Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and Metropolitan Police explosive ordnance disposal teams gathered at the National Army Museum to show off their toys and to announce to the world that there is now a formal educational qualification on offer for bomb disposal. The outside yard set aside for them was not a photographer's idea of a great location so I instantly started to go through the range of "tricks" that you pick up through a career for getting rid of awful or unhelpful backgrounds.

My first idea was to frame so tightly on a young disposal officer that there would be no real background at all. Secondly I tried using the ground as my backdrop by looking down at another kevlar clad soldier working on a practice mine. My third stab at it was to use a very long lens (70-200 f2.8 with a 1.4x converter) wide open to throw the background out of focus on a shot of a Royal Naval diver in his dry suit and underwater breathing apparatus. Each of these images worked, but I wanted drama so I settled on shooting an Engineer with his remote controlled robot from below using a winter sky as my backdrop.

This was just a teaser , the Rest of the article at dg 28 ....

Sweet article from strobist : One Minute lighting tip

Its been a while since ive posted something from Strobist
( THE MAN ) , but just saw this cool post there and thought id point u guys to it ..Smart lighting .... :) Check this teaser out :

Quick, what color is the tile that this Turkish candy is sitting on?

If you said green, you should probably hit the jump to learn about how lighting on two planes gives you more control over your photos.

________________

First things first: The tile that the candy on is actually black.

Second, let's walk through the light reader Nionyn used for the shot and see what's what.

The main light is a gridded Vivitar 283, coming in from front camera left.

Rest of the article at Strobist .

Briefing on the CCC February 2008 meeting

So i just joined the CCC ( Cairo Camera Club) , and attended the monthly meeting ( the 14th of Feb 2008 ) . For those of u who are yet to join , or those members who missed the meeting , heres a lil briefing .

Im gonna lay down what we did yesterday in short , but first lets say the highlight of the meeting was guest photographer Vivian Ronay , who started the meeting off by a short presentation on documentary editorial photography namely her work in Petra , Jordan . Not only was it a display of works , but a quite informative review on how and why u can edit ur pics before theyre sent over to magazine editors ...

She stressed points like enivronment , portraits , group portraits , history , and namely pics that tell stories . Her personal process of editing is done mainly by pinning a lot of small prints on a big bulletin board and looking over them to see which one catches the eye and tells the story better . After we were done with that she got to comment and give her opinion about several photos of the group members which i personally found very educative .

Afterwards CDs were presented by group members containing their works from the previous Zoo outing . Next outing shall be Sat the 23 of February at the Waraa Island in Embaba . More details on the facebook group page .

Group members were also asked to submit works under the title "EGYPT FOR ME " or " MY EGYPT" , and the winning works will get to be displayed at the Camera Club in Australia .

DAY FOR NIGHT : Assignment by Mr John Harrington

Just in case u people forgot , ASSIGNMENT CONSTRUCT , is a place u should visit regularly . Another assignment by mr John here , remember to visit the link for the full Concept , pre , post production and results parts of the assignment...




Assignment:

When we arrived, the roadway section we were working in was newly painted with a wonderful double yellow line. This was to be an evening shot, but it was actually shot at 1pm, in the middle of the day.

An on-site generator provided the power, and stopping down to F22 at 250th at iso 50 gave us three-stops below sunny-16, so we were, essentially, at dusk. The entire shoot took less than 30 minutes, including wardrobe change from white jacket to blue, and client review of the finished images.

Full post at ASSIGNMENT CONSTRUCT .

2008 Sakia Contest Report

I know this was supposed to be posted about a month ago , but hay , its better late than never .. So a couple of days ago we posted the link for the winners in the Sakia contest which took place in January , and i was lucky enough to attend . Thought id post some works i liked in the event , which didnt win , but deserved definite recognition ... Now as i said i couldnt manage to get the names of all the contestants , but those i managed to meet i wrote a lil bout them , at least so u guys would know their names .





Khaled Zohny : Accidentally met him as i commented loudly on one of his works ( am i glad im a loud talker haha ) , and i got to discuss his works with him . Uve prob seen one of his pics in the winners gallery , but i chose to display his non winning pic here , which i personally think deserved to win . A very clever pic for a very commonly shot subject , which are the Giza pyramids , and a totally new vision and approach . Using a CTO filter he managed to give the pyramids a a greyish brown cloudy mysterious appearance . A strong sense of greatness and magic radiated from this pic . Seen here on the right .

His deviant art link is very impressive , please make sure u check it out.



Nour El Refai : Pro photographer Nour ( interview ) , also did very well , winning more than one prize , and here i show him standing beside 2 of his pics ( the bottom pics on the right ) . His pic of the Soffy Dancer ( last pic on the bottom ) was more than stunning , very colorfull , full of motion , yet the face is clearly in focus showing a great deal of expressions . A new approach to a once again , commonly shot subject .













Mahmoud Saad : A persistant shooter, who shoots even when driving ( literally! ) , always upto something , always thinking . If u go to a contest or a group exhibit ure very likely to come across one of Mahmouds works . Always active .... His pic is the one on the bottom right , the girl on the stairway .

















Hesham El Tamamy : Mr Tamamys works are stunning to say the least , and u will see him in the winners section . An artist at heart no doubt.







Khaled Morsi : a well known artist, here in egypt , displays his beautiful abstract works , seen here on the right ... Unfortunately havent got the chance to talk to him in person.

















Some works i enjoyed but didnt display as pics here were for Mohammed El Tamamy ( also an author of this blog ), and a talented young man named Ali Hazzaa, ( with works like Faithless Cairo , and Love which i personally thought were well thought of ) he has great ideas , still needs to read a bit , and work on his technique, but hes on it .......

Below are some of the works i loved , yet never got to meet their creators , thought id just show them down here :

CONGRATULATIONS FOR THE AFRICAN CUP PEOPLE !

WE DID IT !!!! EGYPT WON THE AFRICAN CUP , FOR THE SECOND TIME IN A ROW ..... enjoy the links and the pics ! ....

Some of the pics i really enjoyed ....

Defending champions Egypt took aim at a sixth African crown on Thursday when they defeated Côte d'Ivoire 4-1 in the semi-finals to set-up a final showdown on Sunday against Cameroon.
Cameroon, the four-time champions, earlier edged hosts Ghana 1-0 in the other semi-final in Accra. Sunday's final will be a rematch of the teams opening Group C clash here which the Pharoahs won 4-2.Rest of article Article and photos from Fifa.com





More pics at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/7237530.stm

BBC player ratings for the final match in which we beat cameroon 1-0 .....



This is a good chance to enjoy some decent sport photography shots , make sure u visit the links guys ...




Pics from BBC Sport and FIFA .com ... enjoy

NEWS: Sakia Exhibit on the 11th ..

Got this on my email from Mr Tony Marcel ,... An exhibit in Cairo, Egypt at the Sakia u guys , and the people exhibiting are GOOD , i'll tell u that much .... Don't miss --->

Dear friends......

At last some action.....lets shake the stagnant blood in our viens and go to El Sawy to pay a visit our friends.......Enjoy.....

Men who wish to know about the world must learn about it in its particular DETAILS. Heraclitus (544 BC - 483 BC )

You are cordially invited to a Photography exhibition " DETAILS".

Location: Sakiet Al Sawy (Al Sawy culture wheel) in Zamalek- El Hekmah hall

Date and Time: Monday, February 11th, 2008; 6:30 – 10:00 PM

Come and enjoy the diversity of visions!

Doaa Shaarawy
Monir Elshazly
Hala Al Hawary
Elham Mohamed (ELEL)
Amira Abdelkhalek
Nermine Rageh
Sally Rageh
Mohanad Elkholy

a few tips for buying a camera (lot of other stuff if u follow the link)

What are the main features to look for in an SLR?

• Pixel count
For most people, the first feature they notice when buying any camera is the number of pixels it has. This is understandable as it is the feature that manufactures push the hardest in their advertising campaigns because it is one of the few quantifiable features to boast about in a camera. However, pixel count is not as important as many people think.
Any Digital SLR with 6 million or more pixels can easily produce fantastic quality pictures at A3 size, so unless you want to make huge posters, or do a lot of cropping, any of the current DSLR cameras would be good enough.

• Frame Rate
The frame rate is the number of pictures the camera is able to capture per second. Most entry level DSLRs will be able to shoot at 3fps. The semi-pro/ high end amateur cameras are often capable of shooting at 5fps and there are a couple of Professional cameras designed for sports and journalism which are capable of firing at an incredible 8fps.
Most people will only use their cameras in single shot mode, but if you enjoy photographing sports or wildlife then a camera with a faster frame rate can be very useful. This is especially true if you enjoy the ultimate challenge of shooting kids running around the back garden!

• Build Quality + Ergonomics
Often overlooked, the handling can be one of the most important aspects of any camera, especially an SLR. It's hard to get an appreciation of this without actually physically trying the camera but most magazine or online reviews will mention this. The main aspects of the ergonomics of the camera to consider are the hand grip, the viewfinder, and the external button functions. The advantages of a good hand grip and a large bright viewfinder are easy to appreciate. The way in which you access certain features and functions on a camera may not seem terribly important at first but you soon start to realise how useful a good control layout can be. A well designed camera body will have all of the regularly accessed functions available on external buttons and dials whereas a camera of poorer design may have these features buried in menu systems. Again, read the reviews and the camera forums and you will see which cameras are praised for these abilities. Often the biggest difference between two cameras will simply be the way it handles.

• AF System
The autofocus systems employed by each manufacturer are usually very comparable at a given price point in terms of speed and accuracy. As you start to move up the manufacturers' lines of SLRs you will encounter improved autofocusing abilities. These improved AF systems usually go hand in hand with a faster frame rate. This is due to fast AF system being needed most when you are in the same situations that require a fast frame rate such as sports and wildlife photography.

• Anti Shake
Anti shake technology has been developed to counteract blurred pictures caused by camera or hand shake. This technology has been available in lenses and camcorders for a few years now. Nikon and Canon have a range of lenses with this technology which can be used on their SLRs. Recently we have seen other manufacturers build sensors into their camera bodies which work on the same principle as lenses, using gyros to detect movement and then shifting the sensor slightly to counteract that movement and produce a sharper image. This is most useful if you do a lot of work with longer focal lengths or in low light.

• Anti Dust Mechanism
This is another recent development in DSLRs. Every time you take the lens off the camera small particles of dust will inevitably enter the camera. When the shutter opens it is possible for the dust to settle on a filter across the front of the digital sensor. When you shoot with a narrow aperture it can be possible for small specs of dust to appear on your pictures. Whilst you can clean the sensor every few lens changes with a bellows blower or sensor brush, it is a great help if you have one of the integrated dust prevention systems. The best systems shake the dust off the sensor every time the camera is powered on or off and have adhesive pads which prevent the particles settling back onto the sensor. If you are worried about cleaning the camera's sensor yourself then these systems can be quite useful.

• Memory Card Type
One other main factor to consider is what type of memory card the cameras use. Most take Secure Digital or Compact Flash cards. The difference between them is insignificant, but you may have a collection of one type already so this may rule out certain cameras. If you are upgrading from a compact camera then you may well have SD cards already, but if this is your first digital camera then the type of media it uses is less important.

link:http://www.parkcameras.com/article/mcs/art/38/#whatisadigitalcamera#whatisadigitalcamera