Digital Sports Photography – Birds of Prey
Posted by Simon Henry on Oct 5, 2010
Birds of prey are one of the most difficult subjects in digital sports photography, especially hawking as in a dive birds such as the Harris Hawk can reach speeds over 100mph. One thing I will recommend is don’t frame too tightly. Be flexible and crop after, you will get more usable photos that way and with todays high resolution SLR’s this is not a problem. also, be prepared to use a higher ISO than usual, you will need to have the fastest shutter speed but can’t have a hugely shallow depth of field or you will get a lot of blurred photos so the only option left is increase the ISO. I hope you get some decent photos if you come across any beautiful birds of prey and that you benefited from these digital sports photography tips.
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Mastering Digital Photography PDF
Posted by Simon Henry on Sep 27, 2010
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Digital Sports Photography – Do’s and Dont’s
Posted by Simon Henry on Sep 26, 2010
Digital sports photography is all about capturing the emotion and feelings behind the sports that you are photographing, and gives you a real chance to get right up close and personal with the sports as though you are part of the action.
When photographing sports, the main thing you want to achieve is close and sharp photographs with no background clutter. Most sports are watched from a distance such as football, baseball, motor sports and many others which mean a good telephoto lens is essential to pull up the image nice and close so you can see what is going on. Most digital SLR cameras have a standard lens mount e.g. Nikon and Canon have a standard mount and are compatible with many lenses from previous model film camera’s. Have a look on an online auction site if you do not yet have a telephoto lens as you may be pleasantly surprised at what a bargain you can get. The main thing here is to have a telephoto lens, it doesn’t have to have all bells and whistles, as long as it gets the result that is all that matters. For many years I used an entry level Sigma telephoto lens before I could afford to replace it with a better Nikon lens, but am I glad I bought the Sigma because it got me some stunning photos I otherwise would not have got!
Once you have got a telephoto lens sorted out, the next stage is to make sure your shutter speed is going to be nice and quick. Now depending on the lighting available and the type of sport you are photographing, you may want to play with some different settings. By increasing the ISO, you will get a quicker shutter speed, by reducing the depth of field (widening the aperture), you will get a quicker shutter speed. WIth a telephoto lens, there is always a chance of camera shake because you are pulled in much closer to the subject so it would be a good idea to invest in a beanbag or a monopod / tripod so you have some form of support, if you cannot afford a tripod, or it isn’t convenient then you can wrap up your jacket and put it on a fence / wall or other solid support in order to get a stable position which will result in much sharper photos, trust me. To get a nice sharp photo with moving sports, you should ensure you move with the subject (as above), not holding the camera still and have the subject zoom through the photo and try and capture them, this will result in a sharp background, and blurred action… Not what we want. You should use a technique known as ‘panning’ which is basically following the subject with a point in the viewfinder, the middle works best and locking onto where they are moving. Now you may think that’s all good and well but what about focusing, my camera cant keep up with the speed of the subject? Well, that is where focus lock comes into play, most camera’s even the cheapest compact digital cameras have focus lock – when you hold the shutter release half way down, that locks the focus unless it has been manually changed to continuous focus. The benefit of focus lock is that you can pick a point where you want to take the final photo, focus on that point and lock the focus and then still holding the focus lock move the camera with the subject, and when they pass though the area you originally focused on you can take the photo, resulting in a nice sharp image focused on where they were moving through (whilst panning with them of course).
I hope you have an improved result with digital sports photography following this article and should you wish to ask any questions, please comment this post or send me a message via Twitter, you can follow me too to keep up to date @masteringdp
Thanks for reading, Simon.
Mastering Digital Photography Exposure
Posted by on Sep 25, 2010
Mastering digital photography exposure is one of the most difficult things to get right if the light is not in your favour. Wherever there is a lot of contrast or shadows in direct light it is more important you ensure your exposure is correct. I recommend taking a few photos in manual and choosing the best looking out of the photos as a benchmark exposure to use in the same scenario (unless there is a lot of changing light eg. clouds blocking sunlight). By using a constant exposure for the given light in a situation, you can ensure the photos will be evenly exposed every time, so long as you don’t change the aperture / focal length (zoom) or ISO (film speed) or alternatively use a non-zoom lens and leave all other settings the same.
Here are some example situations where this technique is particularly useful:
Somebody standing against a dark background e.g. a hedge or dark building.
Photos of a scene where part is in shade and part in bright light (the best way around this is to go into the shade OR light to get an evenly exposed photo, as the range on many camera’s cannot handle this and you will end up with the shade showing details and washed out highlights where there is too much light.
To make sure you get to grips with mastering digital photography exposure, set your camera to manual and practice with different tricky scenes where you know your camera has come against difficulty in the past. The reason I suggest this, is because often your camera can find a situation difficult where another camera finds it easy and vice versa. For example I used to have a Nikon D70 which struggled to focus on any plain subject such as the sky or a wall, but other camera’s found this an easy task, although the D70 did have some features where it excelled many of it’s competitors.
Here is an example photo of where mastering digital photography exposure has paid off
Steves Digicams Camera Reviews
Posted by Simon Henry on Sep 14, 2010
Are you looking to get a new camera? Before you decide to purchase, be sure to checkout Steves Digicams camera reviews, very useful and informative information that is worth checking out.
Steve has been reviewing cameras for many years and as the test photos are all comparable you can get a better estimation of what camera to go for.
You can get to his website by clicking the below link:
Steves Digicams Camera Reviews
Mastering Digital Landscape Photography
Posted by Simon Henry on Sep 13, 2010
Many people think to get a good landscape photo, you need a specific lens and camera body combination, the right aperture and lots of other specific criteria that should be ‘right’.
My view is: Just take photo’s and go with your gut feeling of what looks good!
The below is a photo from Willen Lake that was stitched with… No not Photoshop, Windows Live Photo Gallery (Free Program).
This is evidence you don’t need the best equipment / settings to get a pleasing photo.
Go download Windows Live Photo Gallery and get some photo’s left to right making sure you move in equal stops overlapping each frame slightly.
Good luck mastering digital landscape photography! Simon.
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The Perfect Travel Companion
Posted by Simon Henry on Sep 13, 2010
Ever wandered how you can get GPS info on your photos without spending thousands on a top end SLR with the ability built in?
Thanks to my friend Greg Langford, who suggested the below when we were out cycling and taking HDR photos at Willen Lake, you can get this useful ability and even track your routes on Google Maps to share! Check it out:
http://www.easydevices.co.uk/products.asp?partno=IGOTUGT120&model=
Accepting Responsibility Is The First Step To Great Photos
Posted by Simon Henry on Sep 12, 2010
Great photographers receive criticism of some kind, what makes them great is that they accept responsibility for their mis haps and errors and grow because of it.
In order to get the best photos, you need to accept responsibility if your photos do not come out well. You cannot blame the lighting / weather / time of day or any other variable I'm sure you can think of. Once you accept responsibility, you can move forwards past your blocks because you won't fear responsibility behind the camera.
Breaking down your mental barriers and blocks or other fears is what will lead you to taking more original and creative photos.
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Mastering Digital Photography Review
Posted by Simon Henry on Sep 11, 2010
Mastering Digital Photography by David Busch is a wonderful book and a must have on any photographers book shelf. I have read Mastering Digital SLR Photography previously and found it to be one of the most well laid out and easy to read through books I have come across.
Not only does David show you how to take technically great photos, he really does inspire you to take artistic photos too. This is a big difference.
Many books can teach you the rule of thirds blah blah blah etc. But can they inspire and show you how to take photos from a master photographers point of view?
His credentials speak for themselves, David now writes for CNet.com and has been a photojournalist for more than 20 years. He has even owned a commercial studio, and really cuts the mustard with experience.
This Mastering Digital Photography Review is just to summarise some of the concepts of Mastering Digital Photography, but in order to really learn from someone who has been there, done that – you should order a copy and pick up from it what you can apply to your particular type of photography.
You can order your copy from Amazon below
All the best, Simon.
Dragon Fly Photography
Posted by Simon Henry on Sep 11, 2010
