I have been doing some research on ISO settings for digital cameras. I have found out something rather interesting that I didn't stop to think about before. The ISO setting on a digital camera typically a D-SLR is different than the ISO setting on a film camera. The ISO on a film camera is a setting used to specify the film speed being used. Where as the ISO in a D-SLR indicates the sensitivity of light perceived by the cameras sensor.
A low ISO of 100 is great for achieving almost zero noise in your photograph. Low noise means your images will be clear and sharp. Noise in digital photograph is what grain is to film. A high is of 1600 can record images extremely fast with much less light than an ISO of 100. Though it will give you more noise than low ISO settings. Low ISO numbers require longer exposure with more light needed. While adjusting your ISO settings you need to keep in mind you will have to make a compensation when it comes to aperture and shutter speeds.
If you plan on making very large prints from your photographs, you will want to shoot with a low ISO typically around 100. The low to zero noise will make very clear and smooth photographs that are ideal for enlarging to a big size. Of course mega pixel size plays a vast roll in how big you can really produce prints. An ISO of 200 and 400 can manage to produce some good quality enlarged prints. I suggest using all the ISO setting and practice shooting with all of them. This will give you a much great feel for the capability of your camera. Keep in mind that selecting a higher ISO requires compensation of aperture and shutter speed. Knowing how all the settings of your camera operate can give you a crucial advantage over the amature shooting next to you. I recommend staying away from the Auto ISO mode, this will only keep you from knowing how each setting works. So get your camera out, set it to ISO 100 and start working from there and go through each setting and see each one operates.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Digital Printing
When it comes to printing your digital photographs there can be a tremendous amount of confusion. There are a number of different websites that offer many types of printing services. These sites offer low cost prints to consumers. Below are two sites that I have heard a lot of buzz about. I have seen some good quality prints come from both sites. They are low cost sites that offer print sizes from wallets all the way up to poster sizes. They also offer novelty gifts like mouse pads and mugs with your photos on them.
Before we move forward I would like to bring up a good point. Your camera makes a world of a difference when it comes to print sizes. The higher your mega pixels the larger your prints can be. A 7 mega pixel camera can produce a good quality print up to about 20 inches. 10 Mega pixels can reach a comfortable size of around 44 inches.
http://www.winkflash.com
http://www.snapfish.com
If you are looking for higher quality, professional quality printing company I recommend checking out Meridian Pro. They are a leading printing company that offers professional quality prints. They print using Kodak Endura Professional paper. I have used them for portraits and I have to say, they are an outstanding company to work with.
http://meridianpro.com/
Winkflash and snapfish are great sites to use when you want to print your snap shots and family pictures. Meridianpro is best used for professional portraits and wedding photographs. You can use Meridianpro for your Fine Arts Prints, however I recommend you use a giclee printer instead.
http://www.gicleeprint.net/abtGclee.shtm definition of giclee printing
Giclee prints are made by a process of archival ink being sprayed to the paper, or canvas. Prints are made using an 8 or 12 color ink jet printer. The most commonly used printers are by Epson. Epson has a great line of printers out. Below is a link to the Epson site that has six printers starting at $1299.00 for a 17" wide bed working their way up to a 64" wide printer for a hefty price tag of $28,995.00
Epson Printers http://www.epson.com/
If you are purchasing your own printer, the next and some what confusing step is to select what paper you would like to use. Paper of course depends on the photograph itself. This past year I have seen Harman introduce some amazing papers for digital photography. Here is the link to Harman Professional Inkjet papers.
http://www.harman-inkjet.com/home.asp
Epson also has their own line of papers compatible for their printers. To sum up, figure out what type of printing you need. If you have an outstanding photograph of a beautiful landscape you will want to print it using the latest in digital printing technology and go with a giclee printing service. If you have shot some amazing portraits of your friends, love ones, or that special someone who captures your heart, then I suggest using meridianpro or company that is comparable in quality. If you have some snap shots from a family cook out or a holiday like Christmas, then snapfish or winkflash are prefect for you.
For giclee prints I use Sky Lake Studios. Sky Lake is owned by Shelley Lake. Rob Caswell has always handled and printed my work for me. I strongly recommend using Sky Lake for your your giclee printing needs.
http://www.skylakestudios.com/
Owner and Photographer Shelley Lake
http://www.shelleylake.com/
Before we move forward I would like to bring up a good point. Your camera makes a world of a difference when it comes to print sizes. The higher your mega pixels the larger your prints can be. A 7 mega pixel camera can produce a good quality print up to about 20 inches. 10 Mega pixels can reach a comfortable size of around 44 inches.
http://www.winkflash.com
http://www.snapfish.com
If you are looking for higher quality, professional quality printing company I recommend checking out Meridian Pro. They are a leading printing company that offers professional quality prints. They print using Kodak Endura Professional paper. I have used them for portraits and I have to say, they are an outstanding company to work with.
http://meridianpro.com/
Winkflash and snapfish are great sites to use when you want to print your snap shots and family pictures. Meridianpro is best used for professional portraits and wedding photographs. You can use Meridianpro for your Fine Arts Prints, however I recommend you use a giclee printer instead.
http://www.gicleeprint.net/abtGclee.shtm definition of giclee printing
Giclee prints are made by a process of archival ink being sprayed to the paper, or canvas. Prints are made using an 8 or 12 color ink jet printer. The most commonly used printers are by Epson. Epson has a great line of printers out. Below is a link to the Epson site that has six printers starting at $1299.00 for a 17" wide bed working their way up to a 64" wide printer for a hefty price tag of $28,995.00
Epson Printers http://www.epson.com/
If you are purchasing your own printer, the next and some what confusing step is to select what paper you would like to use. Paper of course depends on the photograph itself. This past year I have seen Harman introduce some amazing papers for digital photography. Here is the link to Harman Professional Inkjet papers.
http://www.harman-inkjet.com/home.asp
Epson also has their own line of papers compatible for their printers. To sum up, figure out what type of printing you need. If you have an outstanding photograph of a beautiful landscape you will want to print it using the latest in digital printing technology and go with a giclee printing service. If you have shot some amazing portraits of your friends, love ones, or that special someone who captures your heart, then I suggest using meridianpro or company that is comparable in quality. If you have some snap shots from a family cook out or a holiday like Christmas, then snapfish or winkflash are prefect for you.
For giclee prints I use Sky Lake Studios. Sky Lake is owned by Shelley Lake. Rob Caswell has always handled and printed my work for me. I strongly recommend using Sky Lake for your your giclee printing needs.
http://www.skylakestudios.com/
Owner and Photographer Shelley Lake
http://www.shelleylake.com/
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Holyoke: A Sunday night in the park
Sunday night I was driving through Holyoke making my way towards High St, when I was side tracked by the little park where the Volley Ball Hall of Fame is located. I forgot the name of this little park. There are a number of Historical items located in this park. What caught my attention was how the light seemed to glow ominously as it danced amongst the trees and made its way through the park and into my lens.
A recognizable landmark.
This view is initially what made me pull over and photograph the area. When I look at this picture, it makes me think of somewhere other than Holyoke. It does not look like the city I know.
This massive, castle-like structure is a wonderful display of an architectural masterpiece. This is Holyoke City Hall. Resting on High Street, this monumental giant is a spectacular sight to see. Especially at night.
A recognizable landmark.
This view is initially what made me pull over and photograph the area. When I look at this picture, it makes me think of somewhere other than Holyoke. It does not look like the city I know.
This massive, castle-like structure is a wonderful display of an architectural masterpiece. This is Holyoke City Hall. Resting on High Street, this monumental giant is a spectacular sight to see. Especially at night.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
HDR Photography
High Dynamic Range Photography
HDR Photography is the latest trend in the photography community, industry, and well entire world. Now for some of you, you might be asking what is HDR Photography? What language is he speaking? Well, for those of you who know what HDR Photograph is, chances are you're probably already familiar with what I will be discussing. As for the rest of you, its time to take a giant step forward and jump into the world of HDR Photography. Digital photography has had its share of trends, however almost any publication or article that I have read about HDR is calling this the future of digital photography. My goal with this article is not to fully delve into every possible aspect of HDR photography. As there are a few different ways of producing the final product. In which case you can still take it a few steps further and produce some amazing photographs. At the end of this article there will be a list of links in which you can explore the world of HDR and learn even more than what I will introduce. Included with the links I will include links to other photographers that are shooting HDR.HDR photography is High Dynamic Range photography. Shooting HDR means that you are shooting to achieve a wide range of tones. The way we seeing objects and compositions is not exactly how we can capture them in camera. Our eyes have the ability to see the dynamic range, however cameras are unable to reproduce exactly all the tonal ranges that are present. There for when you want to produce an HDR photograph/image you must make multiple exposures to get the full tonal range. The basic concept is to shoot and bracket your exposures. Usually by going 1-3 stops below and over exposure. This can be done by shooting for highlights, lowlights, and mid-tones. The goal is to get the highlights, lowights and the shadows all present in the photograph/image.
Below are two photographs that I shot. The photograph on the right is one single image using one exposure. The photograph on the right is the same composition and same exposure time. The only difference is that the photograph on the right was created using three exposures. Getting the highlights, lowlights, and mid-tones. Looking closely at the right you can see that there are shadows present as well as great mid-tones right up to the highlight ares that aren't overly blown out, but still a little brighter than should be. This is a recurring issue shooting at night and trying to produce HDR photogrpahs.
You can produce HDR photographs using photoshop CS2 and CS3. Providing you have the right bracketed exposures you can use the Merge to HDR feature in Photoshop. Below is a link titled HDR Photography and PhotoShop CS2. This link provides all the necessary information to produce HDR Photographs using CS2. There is software that can produce HDR photographs much easier than using Photoshop. I would rely on photoshop as an alternative and back up. I have not currently purchased PhotoMatix. Below is a link for the software.
I will be making more posts related to HDR Photography. This was an introductory post that is meant to inform, educate, and give people an insight into a more advanced method of producing digital photographs.
HDR Photography Explained (wikipedia.com)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging
*HDR Photography Tutorial* (I recommend this site)
http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/HDR_ps/hdr-ps.htm
HDR Photography
http://www.mediachance.com/hdri/index.html
HDR Photography and PhotoShop CS2
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/high-dynamic-range.htm
Tone Mapping
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_mapping
PhotoMatix HDR SoftWare
http://www.hdrsoft.com/
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Welcoming....
I would like to introduce and welcome Rube Nieves to lenshare.com as a contributing photographer. Ruben is a friend, colleague and an aspiring photographer. Ruben works as a contributing photographer for The Phoenix Press. Last Friday night Ruben accompanied me as I was shooting for my Northampton Project. Here are a few photographs from Ruben.
Only with a Nikon can you make a person look as if they are floating on the photograph. This is an in camera process that allows for an almost 3d-ic appearance. I began experimenting with this process after Ruben showed me a clever in camera edit.
Portrait of a banker.
One that surprised us both was how receptive people were to us shooting them. Majority of the people that walked by struck a pose for us to shoot. People we so curious about the presence of our cameras. This allowed us to get some portraits we other wise wouldn't be able to get in some places.
People driving by even stopped to allow us to make portraits. Ruben managed to inspire most people passing by to give us a pose or at least a smile and a chance to make a photograph of them.
Only with a Nikon can you make a person look as if they are floating on the photograph. This is an in camera process that allows for an almost 3d-ic appearance. I began experimenting with this process after Ruben showed me a clever in camera edit.
Portrait of a banker.
One that surprised us both was how receptive people were to us shooting them. Majority of the people that walked by struck a pose for us to shoot. People we so curious about the presence of our cameras. This allowed us to get some portraits we other wise wouldn't be able to get in some places.
People driving by even stopped to allow us to make portraits. Ruben managed to inspire most people passing by to give us a pose or at least a smile and a chance to make a photograph of them.
Make sure you check back to see more work from Ruben.
Springfield, Mass
A few photos from the top of 1350 Main St.
The average person doesn't get the chance to have photos or views like these.
(Just a few snap shots)
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Mel Gibson
This morning before I headed off to do a shoot of my own I took a detour to Northampton to get a glimpse of the filming that was taking place. There was a lot of activity taking place. People running around, extras taking their place, film crews setting up the scene, and the heavy presence of police were a majority of what I witnessed. The longer I stood watching, the thicker the crowd grew, as people came out to see the star make a public appearance. Below are a few of the photos I snapped while I watched the crew work hard to set up for the clip they were about to film.
Could it be? Is it really him? NO! It is his "body double" shaking hands with one of the film crew members. The man to his left is an actor he was rehearsing the scene with.
The film crew working to set up the massive arm that holds the camera. It is like a massive tripod that has a robotic head.
The camera hanging high over the side walk.
This man has an important job of lowering massive tripod as the camera is controlled remotely.
The camera angled towards the future scene of the movie.
Some important guys sitting on a bench.
This woman was overly excited to be standing there watching. And by overly excited I mean she was standing as close as she could get before being removed from the crowd. Just out of the shot in front of her to the left was a guy standing there making sure no one walked onto the set. I was waiting for her to just rush past him and run up to Mel first chance she had.
This woman happened to look over as I was shooting the guy with the camera. For every one person I saw, there were twice as many cameras. Some people were holding cell phones, cameras, video cameras, video cameras strapped to cell phones. Every time I made a move to a new spot another photographer was right there behind me hovering over me. I made it a point to move around quite a bit.
As I was walking away I caught a glimpse of Mel's "body double". This man was standing there smoking a cigarette. His body language and the way he just stood there with the cigarette in his mouth would have made you believe that it was Mel Gibson himself standing there. It got me thinking of how much of this "body doubles" life is spent being someone else. I couldn't fathom just how much work it would take to spend your life being someone else and trying to act and carry yourself the way someone does.
Am I disappointed that I didn't get a shot of Mel? Not at all. I was more impressed with being there on an actual set than I was concerned about getting a shot of Mel. It would have been nice to make a photograph of him, but, at least I got a photo of his "body double".
Could it be? Is it really him? NO! It is his "body double" shaking hands with one of the film crew members. The man to his left is an actor he was rehearsing the scene with.
The film crew working to set up the massive arm that holds the camera. It is like a massive tripod that has a robotic head.
The camera hanging high over the side walk.
This man has an important job of lowering massive tripod as the camera is controlled remotely.
The camera angled towards the future scene of the movie.
Some important guys sitting on a bench.
This woman was overly excited to be standing there watching. And by overly excited I mean she was standing as close as she could get before being removed from the crowd. Just out of the shot in front of her to the left was a guy standing there making sure no one walked onto the set. I was waiting for her to just rush past him and run up to Mel first chance she had.
This woman happened to look over as I was shooting the guy with the camera. For every one person I saw, there were twice as many cameras. Some people were holding cell phones, cameras, video cameras, video cameras strapped to cell phones. Every time I made a move to a new spot another photographer was right there behind me hovering over me. I made it a point to move around quite a bit.
And finally we come to the end of the photos. Here we have the two actors rushing down the stairs in what appeared to be a scene of anger and frustration as the "body double" made physical contact and gestures of irritation with the fellow actor.
As I was walking away I caught a glimpse of Mel's "body double". This man was standing there smoking a cigarette. His body language and the way he just stood there with the cigarette in his mouth would have made you believe that it was Mel Gibson himself standing there. It got me thinking of how much of this "body doubles" life is spent being someone else. I couldn't fathom just how much work it would take to spend your life being someone else and trying to act and carry yourself the way someone does.
Am I disappointed that I didn't get a shot of Mel? Not at all. I was more impressed with being there on an actual set than I was concerned about getting a shot of Mel. It would have been nice to make a photograph of him, but, at least I got a photo of his "body double".
COPY RIGHT JEFFREY BYRNES
Monday, October 6, 2008
New York City Photo Bloggers
I came across this really interesting site while I was searching for some New York City galleries and trying to find some content to write about. nyc photobloggers is a great site that has a number of listings for exhibitions throughout the city. I recommend taking a glance at the site and seeing what they have to offer.
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