Photoscout

• Purchasing Proper Gear

  Every photographer will eventually want to go beyond the normal kit lens that was included in his or her SLR unit before. And when that day comes, it is good to know that you are able to find articles like this to help you in finding what lens you should get.
  There is a continuing debate that if a person should get an extra piece of glass, he or she must opt to get a prime lens. These types of lenses have a fixed focal length which means that they will have to be stuck to that particular length for the remainder of the event. The advantage of having a prime lens as your lens of choice is that it will always give you that important professional photographer look with its depth of field.

  For those who have varying situations as well those who want different focal lengths while adjusting their cam, it is recommended that you go for zoom lenses instead. The advantage of zoom lenses could be that you basically have the best of both worlds. The increased popularity of the zoom lenses nowadays are making it a big hit as opposed to those primes which have not yet been able to turn convince others.

  There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages for both the prime and zoom lens. For the prime lenses, obviously the disadvantage is not being able to zoom in or zoom out just like that. If you’re using a prime lens, you might have to invade the privacy of the next subject. You will get that wonderful bokeh or background blur but I don’t think it will be as useful and versatile as that of a zoom lens. It’s as if having your cake and eating it too. Sadly the setup does not exist that much because you care about the weight and the price of the lens.

  There are a lot of things to carefully consider when you’re buying a lens but it will be much easier if you’re already decided on what type of photographs are you gunning for and in what type of event will you be using that particular lens. If you find that in the future, you will be shooting at an indoor setting that does not allow any particular flash to be fired, then it’s primes for you. For those wackier and much more active events, you might want to have a zoom lens to capture varying degrees of emotion and movement.

  Posted in Tips & Techniques

  October 24th, 2007 / No Comments

• Improving Your Composition

  In today’s hi-tech world, you have a slew of options to choose from. From various auto-focus cameras to the next-generation waterproof ones, the photographer today has virtually limitless potential to take that perfect picture. However, because of the advantages that are available to each person technologically, the equalizer for any person who’s taking pictures is the composition. This is the factor that makes a big difference between an excellent picture and a mediocre one.
  In all of the pictures that we take, we can always choose the boundaries of those photos. We essentially decide to frame every picture a certain way and sometimes that element of framing is everything that matters, all else being equal. We also choose the perspective and the viewpoint of our photographs and whenever we are taking pictures of people or movable objects, we essentially have the freedom to arrange them as we please.
  If you are photographing landscapes, you would want to be the one to move to be able to adjust your point of view and also frame the subjects of interest properly inside the wide-angled landscape shot.
  One of the more important things to look out for is the viewpoint that you’re working with. Being able to select your viewpoint from the position that you are primarily in is very important in the composition of your subject. Most of the time, it is one of the most unappreciated and underused elements in photography. It is important that you always look to change the mediocre and typical layout of your subject within the frame. One of the best techniques to follow is to simply move yourself. If you’re photographing a pair of slippers and you’re standing next to them, you might want to take a picture of  those sandals with a “worm’s eyeview” or more of a lower angle to accentuate the placement of the object.
  Any photograph will take on a totally new dynamic simply because it is an angle that is not explored as much. Try to take an extreme angle of view and shoot something with a different point of view. You can either take it at a very high angle or simply just go all the way down and lie down on the ground for that different approach. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities where you will be able to fully appreciate and experiment in the world of photography. Try changing your viewpoint and amaze yourself in the process.

  Posted in Tips & Techniques

  October 17th, 2007 / No Comments

• ACDSee Pro 2

  Have you ever wondered if there is an alternative to the Adobe Lightroom or maybe even Adobe Photoshop? For those of you who have ever wanted an application which will cater to your photographic editing and workflow needs, you now have something that you can try. If you are quite tired of Adobe products, you might want to check out ACDSee Pro 2.

  In this application, you’ll be able to easily view and browse your collection of photos. You can cull, sort and view them in a fully customizable interface with the ease and precision that is demanded by professional photographers. You can instantly switch to full screen mode for all of your pictures or quickly browse through them using the thumbnail option. ACDSee Pro 2 also allows you to see over 100 different file formats in its viewer including JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, TGA, NEF, RAW, CRW and PSD. This is absolutely one of the best features of the program as it allows you to quickly locate your particular file. This is especially important if you have a lot of photoshop documents that are saved in the PSD format. Since Windows does not offer thumbnail views of PSD files, this is a great feature to have. Just imagine being able to view your RAW files as quickly as your JPEGS. It’s unbelievable.
  You’ll be able to sift through thousands of shots and look for the pictures that you want to keep by using the Visual Tagging feature. You can take your best shots and compare them to view up to four images all at once in even greater detail. No more importing of pictures in Photoshop just to put two pictures side by side. Now all you’ll need is ACDSee Pro 2.
  Another neat feature is that you’ll be able to search through your photos using different keywords, captions or file names. You may also search pictures using their IPTC data of maybe if you want to go the traditional way, you can just use the Quick Search bar.
  Storing your photos is definitely an important thing but how will you ever manage to enjoy them if you won’t be able to sift through them with the greatest of ease. It’s important that you are able to quickly find and filter all of the photos that you need. This is probably a professional photographer’s dream photo management software but for the normal person who just wants to make his life easier, this is a dream come true.

  Posted in Digital Photography

  October 11th, 2007 / No Comments

• Taking Group Shots

  Indoor shots
  Whenever you have cameras with you, there’s bound to be a lot of  people who will be posing for you. One of the best places that you could have a group picture is outside. However, if you really need to take pictures indoors, you should be able to compensate for the lack of lighting. Whenever you’re using an external flash along with your camera, be sure to keep the group within the maximum flash distance range. This is so that all of the individuals in the group will be properly exposed. If you need to add some more lighting you could probably turn on the lights in the room to introduce more light into the room. Another thing to remember is whenever you’re positioning the people, don’t go more than two rows as the light might not be able to shine on the row furthest from the camera.
  
  For outdoor shots, you could simply just position the people if their sun is lighting their faces. It’s also important that the group gets different poses so that it won’t look like a boring, typical class picture. Be sure to have some people looking to the side, some standing while other holding onto someone else. The important thing is that variety must be present in the picture. To add to the variety, you could probably add two or three different small arrangements in the bigger group. You could probably highlight a trio of characters and also see if you can arrange maybe another four in the group. Also you should try to pose behind a plain background so that it won’t distract those who will be viewing the picture afterwards. However, having your group centered around a singular device such as a swing or a car will be beneficial for your group.
  Just remember that you need to make you indoor shots well-lit enough so that when you’re going to take them, they will have enough detail and not have too much shadows while they are developed. These pesky shadows will ruin your day by the time that you’re reviewing your pictures. For outdoor shots, on the other hand, the rule of thumb is to keep it very dynamic.

  Posted in Photography Techniques

  October 3rd, 2007 / No Comments