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aseguratuviaje.com.ar (Parte II)

Dado que mi post/rant sobre aseguratuviaje.com está suficientemente largo:

http://coliseo.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/aseguratuviajecomar/

Comienzo otro motivado por un mail que me acaba de llegar. BTW: antes de postear este mail debo agregar que en algún momento (creo fue en octubre 2008 mientras me encontraba fuera del país) escribió el gerente/fundador (Carlos Maximiliano Pazos) diciendo que “desconocían todo tipo de respuestas aquí expuestas” (lástima que no encuentro el mail para copiarlo literal),  i.e. claro, los mails no (suelen) alcanzar como prueba y por lo tanto el Sr. Pazos lávase las manos y no se hace cargo de nada… De todas formas es claro que la gente que se tome el tiempo de leer sabrá que lo que posteo es 100% verdadero pues por qué habría de mentir, no?

Ahora si va el mail que acabo de responder:

2009/1/18 donotreply@wordpress.com <donotreply@wordpress.com>:
> A new comment on the post #4 “aseguratuviaje.com.ar” is waiting for your approval
> http://coliseo.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/aseguratuviajecomar/
>
> Author : Mariano (IP: 190.51.23.17 , 190-51-23-17.speedy.com.ar)
> E-mail : mariano_8@hotmail.com
> URL    : http://Notengo.com
> Whois  : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=190.51.23.17
> Comment:
> Hola, la verdad? que me parece algo muy empecinado de tu parte en querer demostrar no se que…algo que ni vos debes saber… si vos, pudiste finalmente comprar tu asistencia en otro lado, cual es el motivo que durante tu estadia en el viaje, contestes un mail, o inclusive, una vez regresado contestes alguno? En mi opinion, o lo que haria cualquier persona, seria comprar en otro lado, algo que finalmente tu hiciste, y te olvidas.

Trataré de contestarte (en no más de 5 minutos).
BTW: “tu hiciste?” Escribís desde un IP argentino pero sos de algún otro país latino? De curioso nomás!

Al punto: claro, te olvidas y que se joda el proximo? Servicio a la comunidad que le dicen… varios me mailearon agradeciendo el “heads up”…. o sea, bien valió la pena el esfuerzo de publicarlo, escribir largos mails, etc…, Yo compre en otro lado y por suerte otros también.

> Por otro lado, si me permitis aconsejarte,

ja! aconsejarme? Los consejos los tomo de un pequeño grupo de personas… a vos solo te leo y contesto por mail! Quien sos? Por ahora lamentablemente no más que un Mariano/Mariano_8 anónimo, ni apellido tenés en esta cuenta hotmail y esperas que eso alcance? Sin apellido no llegás ni a clasificar fuera de anónimo…

>no “billetees” con tus titulos y tus viajes, que no son gran cosa, ¿?”viajar por el mundo”¿?, irte diez dias a EEUU, no es algo de lo cual debas estar orgulloso para enrostrarlo a una persona, ten muy en cuenta que todo lo que uno escupe, siempre baja.

En ningun momento hice alarde de titulo (si es que a eso te referís con billetear, lamentablemente no conozco el término), al contrario, soy de los que piensa que el titulo no categoriza a la gente de ninguna forma, de hecho no creo haber ni mencionado a lo que me dedico fuera de “profesor universitario”… sólo expuse a lo que me dedicaba a grosso modo, podría haber escrito plomero dado ese caso…

La verdad es que viajo bastante (por qué asumis que ese fue mi único viaje?), luego de ese viaje segui viajando… de hecho hace un par de días que retorné a mi ciudad! De todas formas no te tengo que explicar a vos que tanto viajo, no?… además “viajar por el mundo” es un término subjetivo. Estuve en Nueva Delhi? No quiere decir que estuve en todos lados, simplemente que viajo bastante, cual es entonces tu punto?

BTW2: “ten muy en cuenta”. En Argentina (deberías saberlo) decimos “tené en cuenta” o “tenga en cuenta”. Nuevamente me extraña que desde un IP Argentino alguien escriba como vos…

> En Aseguratuviaje, o como se llame,  actuaron de pesima manera, primeramente en lo que a lo comercial se refiere y luego a las respuestas inmaduras que tuviste de un Telemarketer de 17 años seguramente, respuestas a las cuales tu te prendiste como si fueras un telemarketer de 19 años con titulo universitario, como asi muy bien lo remarcaste.

Contesté siempre con hechos factuales a partir de lo sucedido… Me calenté después de tanta estupidez pero los insultos vinieron por parte de ellos, no solo del telemarketer de 17 sino del propio dueño de la empresa.

> De hombre a hombre

A la miércoles!!! Que me dirás a continuación despues de tan novelesco encabezado????????

> te lo digo, hay maneras de hacer las cosas, y haciendo esto, demostras que el tiempo que tenes al pedo en tu vida es mucho,

jejejeje, la verdad es que ni ganas me das de explayarme en este punto.

> vos mismo remarcaste:
> Viajes por el mundo.-
> Profesosr Universitario-
> Casado.-
> Son tres cosas para disfrutar a morir y no perder tiempo en postear esto y mucho menos tomarse dos semanas de respuestas en un lugar que no compraste!!!

Fijate que inclusive te contesto a vos, siendo un “total extra”, y? Puedo dedicar unos minutos a contestar mails…

Otra vez te lo tengo que explicar? HEADS UP. Si al menos una persona pudo esquivar a esta empresa (y se que fueron varios) entonces bien valió la pena.

> Es hora de madurar campeon….
>
> Abrazo de Gol
> Mariano

abrazo de gol? Eso si que es de persona madura…

BTW: quedás sumado al blog. Nada cuesta un copy&paste!

Diffraction and Photography

I was wondering what’s the best aperture for my favorite photography subject:land/cityscapes… Probably F8, perhaps F11… F8 is probably what old photographers would pick in order to have a sharp image without risking DoF.

Well, not an easy answer, it depends on the lens you are using, with a APS-C sensor the magic aperture should be at a bigger aperture (small F number), but where is this point?

Go check that sweet point at http://www.photozone.de and read about MTF (resolution) of the lens you are considering for your next shot!

I’ve found my sweet apertures are somewhere between F/4 and F/8 but, as always, YMMV.

Want to read theory about Diffraction? Please go here.

PS: Of course you can not always USE that sweet aperture, it will depend on the available light… if the sun is really really doing his thing then you will need an ND filter in order to use a bigger aperture, etc.

Cheap Stabilized lens…

This trick seems a bit “3rd world”, but I think it CAN work pretty well…. At least I think it is cheap enough to give it a try:

Understanding Histograms

Post from Luminous Landscape, if you are new to photography I’m sure you will find this info really useful.

Possibly the most useful tool available in digital photography is the histogram. It could also well be the least understood. In this article we will look at what a camera histogram tells the photographer and how best to utilize that information.

Virtually every digital camera, from the simplest point-and-shoot to the most sophisticated digital SLR has the ability to display a histogram directly, or more usually superimposed upon the image just taken. (The Hasselblad H1, the latest generation of film & digital capable cameras, can display a histogram on the camera grip’s LCD while the image is separately displayed on the digital back’s LCD.) On most cameras though the histogram display takes place on the rear LCD screen, and most cameras can be programmed to do this both on the image that is displayed immediately after a shot is taken, or later when frames are being reviewed.

The 21st Century Light Meter

When I teach my landscape and wildlife field workshops and am using a DSLR (which I usually am these days) I am frequently asked why I frequently look at the LCD after taking a shot. The answer is that I’m barely even aware of the image on the LCD, it’s the histogram that commands my attention.

In Bloom. Costa Rica — February, 2003

Canon EOS 1Ds with 16-35mm f/2.8L lens @ 24mm. ISO 200

This histogram shows an almost perfect distribution of tones covering about a 4 stop dynamic range — from deep shadows on the left to just short of bright highlights on the right. This fits comfortably within the approximately 5 stop dynamic range capability of most digital imaging chips.

A light meter reading tells you what exposure will render a standard 18% gray reference card as a mid tone. This reading may have been made because the camera read a variety of areas of the scene and averaged them out, or because you read the highlights, the shadows and some other areas and decided that a particular setting would yield the best compromise exposure for that scene.

This setting, like every other that you or your automated camera makes, is a compromise. In most real world situations there is no such thing as an ideal or “perfect” exposure. There is simply one that places the tonal values found in the scene most appropriately within the capability range of the camera’s imaging chip. And “most appropriately” means that the mid-tones found in the image fall roughly half way between the darkest and the brightest values. Hold that thought while we digress for a moment and look at the concept of dynamic range.

Dynamic Range

The digital imaging chip in your camera is very similar to colour transparency film when it comes to its sensitivity to light.

Like slide film, if a part of the image receives too much light it becomes burned out, and if too little light it is rendered as black. A recognizable image is only recorded if the light hitting the chip falls within a range of about 5 F stops. (Remember — each F stop is a doubling or halving of the amount of light hitting the film). With digital things are much the same and even the dynamic range is about the same as for slide film; about 5 stops. Also keep in mind that the total range of brightness values encountered in the real world is only about 10 stops — from the dimmest light that you can read in to the brightest beach or snow scene in which you might find yourself).

Surf & Turf. Big Sur California — February, 2003

Canon EOS 1Ds with 135mm f/2.0L lens @ ISO 100

In an image recorded in 8 bit mode (we’ll ignore 12 , 14 and 16 bit modes for this tutorial) there are 256 discrete brightness levels between absolute black (0) and absolute white (255). 18% gray (the point that all exposure metering measures) has a numeric value of about 128, half way between black and white. If you think about it this is fairly logical. This means that if you are exposing for an average subject, say something like a scene with people, trees, grass etc, these subjects will be exposed at about the mid point of the camera’s dynamic range. Why is this important?

This is because if a subject is exposed too close to either extreme you will run into the limitations of the chip’s ability to record the image. Too close to 0 (absolute black) and there won’t be an image at all, or it will be very dark and noisy, and too close to 255 (absolute white) and there will be nothing there except oversaturated pixels with no image information.

The Histogram

This is where the histogram comes in. It is a simple graph that displays where all of the brightness levels contained in the scene are found, from the darkest to the brightest. These values are arrayed across the bottom of the graph from left (darkest) to right (brightest). The vertical axis (the height of points on the graph) shows how much of the image is found at any particular brightness level.

Note that I somewhat arbitrarily labeled each of the five zones (or F stops) containing the dynamic range recordable by the cameras as Very Dark / Dark / Medium / Light / Very Light. But each of these 1 stop ranges contains within it just over 50 discrete brightness levels. (5X50=250 not 256, but who’s counting?) Seriously though, it’s a good idea to consider about 4- 5 points at the very bottom (black) and another 4-5 points at the very top of the scale (white) to be so close to the extremes as to not really be part of the image-forming segment of the graph. (NB: This is an oversimplified explanation. For how the data is really distributed please read my tutorial Expose to the Right.)

This view of the rear LCD on a Canon 1Ds shows a histogram for a particular shot and also the dotted vertical lines that Canon has engraved on the display separating the 5 stops of dynamic range that are available. As you can see this image has most of its content either in the shadows, or the highlights, with little in the mid-range.

Scanning The Scene. Costa Rica — February, 2003

So now things start to become clearer. The histogram shows us quite a bit, and just as a glance at the hands of an analogue watch instantly tell you the time without your even being conscious of the exact numeric values, similarly once you become proficient at “reading” a histogram you’ll be able to almost instantly evaluate the quality of the exposure that the camera is making. This is especially true when the histogram is superimposed on or just next to the image itself, making the graph that much more meaningful. Lets look at some examples.

Examples

As mentioned earlier, with the exception of a histogram that is very heavily bunched up to the right (overexposed) there really isn’t such a thing as a “bad” histogram, or for that matter a “good” one. The histogram simply shows you the way things are, and its then up to you to decide if what it is telling you needs to be acted upon. Here are some examples.

Here we see the same photograph taken with exposures about three and a half stops apart. Both were at an aperture of f/9. The one on the left was shot at 1/2000 sec and the one on the right at 1/200 sec. The histogram of the one at the left is bunched up at the dark end (underexposed) and the one on the right is bunched up at the light end (overexposed).

There wasn’t an exposure with today’s digital (or transparency film) cameras that could encompass the full dynamic range of this photograph — which is about 8 stops. You therefore have to make some decisions on how to handle such a scene. To stuff 8 stops worth of dynamic range into a recorded image that can only handle 5 stops your choices are….

— use balanced fill flash on the foreground

— use a graduated neutral density filter

— take multiple exposures and merge them digitally

— go home

Fill flash wouldn’t work in this case because the foreground subject was too large and too distant. I didn’t have any graduated neutral density filters with me (I no longer use them), and going home wasn’t what I had in mind. Instead I shot the two frames seen above at about 3 1/2 stops apart and merged them digitally using one of the processes described in my tutorial Digital Blending. The image below is the result. Not great art, but it illustrates the point.

Histograms Just “Are”

As mentioned earlier, with the possible exception of showing badly blown out highlights there really is no such thing as a bad histogram. They just are.

This low key shot’s histogram shows that almost all of the data in the image is down in the lowest areas (darkest) with just a small amount of data showing the bright moon. But since the dark areas aren’t right up against the left hand side and the light areas aren’t up against the right hand side of the histogram, the subject falls within the dynamic range that can be captured. The detail in the moon is what “makes” this shot.

In this “high key” image we see just the opposite. Almost every value seen is toward the right side of the histogram, in the highlight area. That’s where I wanted it to be to properly reproduce the brightness found in this snow scene. Yet, since it doesn’t bump up against the right hand side of the histogram I know that none of the highlights are blown out.

Not too long ago a histogram was something mysterious. Today it has become a valuable tool for the photographer who wants to gain mastery of their digital camera’s image quality. I hope that this tutorial has helped remove some of the mystery for you.

Start using the histogram review feature of your digital camera. Set your camera to display a combined thumbnail and histogram for 5-10 seconds after every frame. Get in the habit of glancing at it. It’s the greatest invention since the built-in light meter.

3 articles on High Dynamic Range Photography

I keep receiving requests to talk about High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography, specially from friends… Since I don’t have the time to do it (or my PhD advisor will kill me!) I will post just 3 URLs… Hope now everything looks better, well that’s the idea behind HDR!

http://www.point101.com/news/high-dynamic-range-photography-20.html
http://blog.23x.net/7/beginners-guide-to-hdr.html
http://techbutter.com/2008/06/02/high-dynamic-range-hdr-photography/

Some HDR from me on Flickr.

Exposure and Camera Modes

I already presented some words about exposure in Exposure and Stops. Just in case here you have some more!

By Fredrik Silverglimth in Lighting, Photography, Photography Basics | May 4, 2008

The exposure is the combined factors of how long time the sensor is exposed to light, how much light comes through and how sensitive the sensor is to light. It’s based on three things, Aperture size, Shutter speed and ISO.

Exposure

There are 3 parts of exposure that you should understand. The following examples ought to illustrate how these 3 components of exposure interact with one another.

Example 1
You take a photograph with the following settings: ƒ/8, 1/250s and ISO 100
But let’s say you want to freeze the object more, which requires a faster shutter speed, you can either change the ISO or the Aperture. First of all let’s change the shutter speed 1 stop faster, 1/500s — now only half the amount of light will reach the sensor. To compensate for this and keep the exposure the same you can change the aperture size 1 f-stop larger, ƒ/5.6.
So ƒ/5.6, 1/500s and ISO 100 will give you the same exposure as ƒ/8, 1/250s and ISO 100 (but now the shutter speed is faster which allows you to freeze your object in a different way).

Example 2
You’re indoors with bad light conditions which makes your current setting too slow and are unable to hold the camera steady enough. The settings are: ƒ/5.6, 1/60s and ISO 100. Your lens’ largest aperture is ƒ/4 which is 1 f-stop larger, changing your shutter speed 1 stop faster will result in: ƒ/4, 1/125s and ISO 100. The shutter speed is still too slow and the result is blurry due to camera shake. Since you can’t change the aperture anymore you will have to change the ISO setting, 1 stop will result in ISO 200, you now have: ƒ/4, 1/250s and ISO 200 which should be enough to get a sharp photograph.

As you hopefully can see from these examples all three parts of the exposure are related to each other. If you just change one of them the result will be either an underexposed or an overexposed photograph, but if you change both you can keep the balance.

55mm, f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO 100

300mm, f/5.6, 1/800, ISO 400

50mm, f/5, 1/320, ISO 400

Overexposure

Overexposure happens when the sensor is exposed to more than enough light, resulting in white images or at least white areas in the images around the light source(s). Sometimes it’s impossible to expose the photograph correctly without getting some overexposed areas. Overexposure can be used as an effect, but most of the time it’s unwanted and avoidable.

Underexposure

Underexposure is the opposite of overexposure, and is the result of the sensor not getting enough light, the photo is dark. Underexposure can be used artistically but just like overexposure it can be unwanted and hard to avoid.

To Underexpose, or Overexpose? That – is the question

With digital cameras it’s much easier to bring back the light and colors from underexposed areas than it is to bring back shades into overexposed areas. If you’re photographing in RAW you might want to consider to underexpose your images on purpose to avoid loosing details in overexposed areas and then use a digital lightroom to bring back the light from the underexposed areas if needed. This depends on the light conditions, and indoors it can be a good idea to overexpose instead.

I personally always underexpose my outdoor photographs 2/3 of an f-stop for this reason, and have found the results much more pleasing than a “correct” exposure.

Exposure Lock

Exposure Lock is a great feature that’s available on most cameras. It’s rather easy to understand what it does, it locks the exposure so that it doesn’t re-calculate the exposure if you move your camera around. Try to find a neutrally exposed part of your object, not the light source nor the shadows but something in between, and press the exposure lock button — recompose your photograph and take the picture.

Camera modes

MANUAL MODES:

• M — Manual mode; this gives you full control over both aperture and shutter speed.
• Av or A — Aperture priority; you control the aperture and the camera calculates the shutter speed for best exposure
• Tv or S — Shutter priority; you control the shutter speed and the camera calculates the aperture
• P — Program mode; a more advanced form of an auto mode. The camera calculates both the aperture and shutter speed, but doesn’t affect settings like ISO or flash.

AUTOMATIC MODES:

• Auto — everything is on auto, including ISO, flash and image quality
• Portrait — uses a large aperture to shorten the depth of field
• Landscape — uses a small aperture to gain more depth of field
• Sport — uses higher ISO to use faster shutter speeds
• Night portrait — uses long exposures to capture the entire scene, often combined with built in flash
• Macro — uses a large aperture to great a softer background

Just Say NO! to Automatic Modes

There is no reason what so ever to use the automatic modes. After you’ve read through this series of articles about photography you should have enough knowledge to control the camera on manual modes — which will result in better photographs.

The Program mode (P) is fine to use, this way you will have the aperture and shutter automatic but still be in control over everything else. Most photographers find a mode that they like and maybe switches between two different modes, this is personal preferences and let me just tell you that far from every professional photographers uses only the fully Manual setting.

I personally use M and Av most of the time, depending on the situation. Av for the situations where I don’t have enough time to set the correct exposure between every shot and then M for the rest.

Note from JaviZ: I usually shoot (perhaps about 80% of my photos) in the Av mode since I use only RAW and I can do some PP if my camera picked a bad shutter speed… and since I have a Canon 40D that’s not the frequent case! Anyway, If I find myself compensating (EV +/-) exposure too often, then I change to M … And I agree with Fredrick, you need the Av mode if you can’t corrext exposure between every shot, for example if you are taking photographies of (wild) children!

Did you think this cute girl of two years old would wait for me to prepare the perfect shot? I think these shots took me about 2 hours!

Depth of Field in Photography

By Fredrik Silverglimth in Photography, Photography Basics | May 5, 2008

Depth of field (DOF) is the distance in front and beyond the object that is in focus. This tutorial will teach you about how to use Depth of Field in your own photography.

Depth of Field in Photoshop

In case you’re looking for a way to imitate Depth of Field in Photoshop (rather than photography, as this tutorial illustrates), we’ve got a great tutorial that will teach you how to enhance your graphics with depth of field in photoshop here at Tutorial9!

A short depth of field can be very useful when you want to isolate your object from the background, such as when taking portraits or macro photography. A large depth of field is great when you photograph landscapes and overall when you want every detail to be in focus.

Control the Depth of Field

There are three variables that affect DOF, the size of the Aperture, the distance to the object and what lens you’re using. (There is a fourth thing that affects the DOF, but that’s the size of the sensor and unless you have two cameras with different sensor sizes this isn’t something to take into account.)

As you can see in the illustration above, a lower f-number equals a shorter depth of field. A higher f-number will give you focus over a longer distance — when you’re having a hard time getting the correct focus it might be a good idea to extend your DOF by changing the aperture.

The distance between you and the object is also important, the closer you are to the object the shorter the DOF. If you’re photographing a person but needs to have a high f-number you can still get a very short DOF by keeping the distance between you and the person to a minimum.

The last thing you can do to affect your DOF is to change the lens. A wide-angle lens has a much greater DOF than a telephoto lens; the most extreme wide-angle and fish-eye lenses don’t even have to focus because they are so sharp on every aperture for the entire DOF (making for excellent scenic shots).

It’s important to know that the depth of field is greater behind the object than in front of it. If you want to photograph, let’s say 20 kids standing in a line, and you want as many of them as possible to be in focus, but you’re unable to have a small aperture, you should focus on the 6th-7th kid in line, which would balance the field of focus about right (depending on your distance to the kids). If you would focus on the 10th kid, that is the one in the middle, the first few kids would be more out of focus than the kids at the back of the line.

Unlike some other parts of photography, the depth of field works in your favor almost every time. If you want to photograph landscapes you usually have a wide-angle lens — the object is far away and you use a high f-number — all these things together gives you a depth to infinity. And if you’re photographing macro you’re close to the object, you have a telephoto lens and often a low f-number — all these things will give you a very short depth which will make your object stand out and make the background soft and non-distracting.

Bokeh

The word Bokeh derives from the Japanese word Boke which means “blur” or “fuzzy“, and that’s just what the term refers to in photography. The out of focus areas in the photograph look very different depending on the depth of field as well as the lens used, some lenses produces much better bokeh than other lenses. The shape of the aperture is one of the most important parts together with the quality of the optics when it comes to how the out of focus areas appear.

The photograph above is meant to illustrate what bokeh is. The lens used was the Canon 50mm f/1.8 which isn’t considered to be a good bokeh lens due to it’s 5 aperture blades.

Standing Steady: Proven Ways to Reduce Shake in Photography

By Fredrik Silverglimth in Photography, Photography Basics | May 16, 2008

Learn how to get those steady shots, both with the help of tripods, monopods, and additionally with your bear hands. These tips are guaranteed to improve your stability while taking photographs!

To get good photographs you usually have to hold the camera steady. Sometimes a blurry photograph or one in motion can be desired, but most of the time it’s unwanted. The most common equipment to help counter this is the tripod, but I will also give you a few other tips to reduce camera shake in this article.

Tripod

As I said, the tripod is the classic tool to make your photographs sharp and crisp. It’s by far the steadiest method and produces great result time after time, but there are a few things to think about.

Just like everything else the tripods comes in all different shapes and sizes, not to mention price classes. It’s important to sit down and think about what you want out of your tripod — is it going to be used in a studio or outdoors, what type of lenses are you planning on using and how much do they weight, do you want a ball head or a 3-way pan-tilt head?

If you’re only going to use the tripod indoors it doesn’t have to be as sturdy and rough as an outdoors tripod needs to be. The heavier the tripod the more stable it is, and I’ve learned a ‘rule’ that says “for every 100mm focal length the tripod should weigh 1kg (2.2 lbs)“. So if you are planning on using a 300mm telephoto lens the tripod should weigh about 3kg (6.6 lbs). I’m not sure how accurate this rule is, but it can work as some kind of guideline. Do keep in mind though that high-end tripods can be both very stable and light, but rather expensive.

If you do not need to have the tripod set up at full height, extend the upper parts of the legs first since the lower parts are thinner and thereby not as stable. Some tripods have the ability to raise a post in the center to maximize the height even more — do not use this feature unless you truly need to since the center post is more unstable.

The choice between a ball head and a 3-way pan-tilt head is simply personal preferences. With the 3-way pan-tilt head you can easily change just one axes, such as panning or tilting, without affecting the other axes. The ball head gives you more ability to move the camera around and is much faster to change, but ball heads are often more expensive.

A personal tripod recommendation would be the Manfrotto 055XPROB legs with the 488RC2 ball head. I have an earlier version of the legs, but the difference is minimal. This combination would land somewhere in the mid-range of prices, but the quality is very high and unless you have very heavy lenses (in which case you might want to look at Gitzo tripods) this is a perfect solution. This tripod is not the lightest, but it’s steady and at a great price.If you’re tall this is also a tripod to consider, since it stand very tall even without the center post raised.

Monopod

A monopod is a great alternative to tripods and handheld. You can’t have a shutter speed of 1 hour on a monopod like you can on a tripod, you can most likely not even have a shutter speed of 30 seconds — but that’s not the target market for monopods. They are a more mobile tool to help you stabilize your shots without having to carry around a tripod, and monopods are far more simple and quick to set up.

It can take some time getting use to a monopod, and the most effective way to use it is to have its foot placed against your back foot. Do not just have the monopod stand in front of you; this will not give enough stability to help you very much. Try finding a good posture where you can hold the camera as steady as possible.

Hand held

This is the most common way to take photographs and most of the time it will do just fine, but there are ways to take advantage of your surrounding and changing your stance to help you with stability.

Always hold the camera close to you, inhale and hold your breath for the duration of the shot. Don’t just tap the shutter release button — you want to press it down and hold down the finger a short while before lifting it again to minimize camera shake.

If you’re using a telephoto lens or other lens that is somewhat heavy or long place your left hand under the lens and grasp it — do not hold the camera body with both hands if you’re using a heavy lens.

Keeping as low profile as possible is a great way to increase your stability. If possible, lay flat on your stomach with both your elbows on the ground. Not as stable but another good stance is with one knee on the ground and the other one at a 90° angle.

Leaning against a tree or wall is another great way to take the stability of something else and help it make you more stable. If possible, place the camera against the tree/wall to maximize the stability. The same goes for rocks, logs, railings and more or less everything you can find to rest your camera on. On many occasions it can be more helpful to rest your camera on a rock than using a monopod.

One last trick I learned from a friend of mine; take your left hand and place it on your right shoulder, take your camera in your right hand and place it on your left elbow/forearm — this might take some time getting use to but the result is a very stable stance that works great with telephoto lenses.

There is a general rule in photography that says that your shutter speed should be at least equal to your focal length to minimize unwanted camera shakes. This means that if you use a 100mm telephoto lens the shutter speed should be at least 1/100s, if you use a 300mm lens the shutter speed should be at least 1/320s.

A warning about the previous stated rule is crucial. Most Digital SLR cameras do not have a sensor with the same dimensions as 35mm film (which was used at the time the rule was made). In most cases the camera has a crop factor of 1.5 or 1.6, this means that a 100mm leans is actually a 150 or 160mm lens when translated into 35mm film sizes.If you’re using a camera with a crop factor of 1.6 and using a 200mm telephoto lens you should have a shutter speed of at least 1/320 (200mm * 1.6 = 320)

Photography: Little Known Ways to Avoid Problems in the Field

By Fredrik Silverglimth in Photography, Technique | June 27, 2008

Photography is all about preparation.  Instead of running into problems when you’re out shooting, understand some easy ways of tackling the more common problems you may run into!

Batteries

Always, and I mean Always, keep and an extra battery in your camera bag at all times. You will need to change battery in the field sometimes and it’s important to be well prepared. It’s important to know that if you’re photographing in low temperatures your camera will drain the battery faster so always stack up on some extra batteries when your out in the cold.

Don’t buy cheap batteries, it will only come back to haunt you in the end. In most cases it’s best to buy the “official” battery for the camera. For instance I have both Canon and non-brand batteries for my Canon EOS 350D; my Canon batteries will last for approximately 5000 photographs (using a vertical grip with 2 batteries) while the non-brand batteries will last somewhere around 200-400 photographs (under the same conditions). This is a huge difference, and I can only say that I’ve learned from my mistake.

Unless you really need it, turn off the LCD. The LCD drains the battery like nothing else, just lowering the brightness of the display will add some extra hundred photographs per charge. The auto display feature should be used with care, if you really need it to be on, at least lower the time the photograph is displayed to the minimal time you need.

Changing Lenses & Sensor Dust

Changing lenses will leave the interior of your camera body exposed to the outside world. It’s important to realize that you should be very careful when changing lenses. Have your back faced towards the wind to minimize dust getting inside and try to avoid changing lenses in the most dust filled areas. If possible, only change your lens in areas that are relative dust free, such as indoors or in a car.

When you change lenses, do the following to minimize the risk of dust getting inside the camera:

• Have your camera hanging around your neck
• Take the new lens in one hand and take off the back lens cap
• Unscrew the lens that’s on the camera and quickly switch lenses
• Put the back lens cap on the used lens

If you get dust on the sensor, be careful — it’s very sensitive equipment. Some people choose to send their cameras in for a sensor cleaning while others clean the sensor themselves, choose which solution you think is best for you.

I personally clean the sensor myself. I use an air blower to clean the sensor, but it’s also perfect for cleaning your lenses and filters. I keep one in each of my camera bags.If you’re using an air blower, don’t place the tip inside the camera body — always have the tip outside of the camera body. If the mirror would flip down the air blower might otherwise get hit and scratch the sensor.

I’ve never used anything directly on the sensor, just blown air onto it, but there are other methods — I guess I wouldn’t trust myself with most of them.

Lens Hood

Lens hoods are often overlooked, but they can improve your image quality as well as keeping your lens protected. The hoods primary job is to block unwanted light from reaching the sensor and thus prevent glare and lens flare. Lens flare can destroy otherwise fine photographs, it’s unwanted and a lens hood is the best way to prevent it — unless you always want to shoot with your back towards the light source(s).

The lens hoods can also be used for protection. With a hood on you’re less likely to accidentally touch the optics. If you’re photographing kids or animals at close range this will also help you from getting unwanted smudges on the lens, because we all know how much kids and animals love shiny things. Using a lens hood when shooting macro is a perfect way to keep your distance to the object and minimize the risk of accidentally bumping into it.

If you drop your lens the hood will most likely take most of the damage (but interior mechanics of the lens might still be damage from a fall, a hood will not protect against that) and hopefully save the lens.

There is one occasion when you should not use a hood, and that’s when you are using a flash. The lens hood can cast a shadow on the object, which is most unwanted. You can angle your flash to bounce on another neutral surface to avoid this shadow if you still want to use the hood.You will have to test your equipment and see if your lens/flash combo will cast a shadow or not.

Extra Memory

Just like with batteries, always take more memory than you think you’ll need. You never want to find yourself in a situation where you are unable to photograph due to the fact that your memory card is full. I would also advice against deleting any photograph directly from the camera. No matter how large or bright the LCD is, it will not show you what the photograph really looks like (sharpness and such fine detail). If a photo is a complete failure, such as just black/white, you can usually make the decision to delete it right there and then, but if you for example think that the photograph looks blurry I would strongly advice against deleting such a photograph. Better safe than sorry — so bring extra memory!

Another quick note when it comes to memory cards, if you’re in extreme environments — deserts, north of the Arctic Circle etc — you should spend the extra bucks on a SanDisk Extreme III-IV card. Not only are they faster but they are constructed to withstand more abuse and have a greater range of working temperatures. (Obviously these cards are faster even under normal circumstances, so it could be worth the money just for the speed alone depending on your set-up.)