Taypes of file formats for Digital Photography

The digital file format a photographer chooses for saving photos is determined by the intended use of the images, the hard drive space the photographer is comfortable with giving up for storage and whether the images will be edited after picture-taking.

JPEG

JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. This file format is identified by .jpg at the end of the file name. It is a widely used format that is compatible with all software and hardware.
Most JPEG files are smaller than other file formats because JPEG saves space by compressing data. JPEG is both a file type and a compression type. JPEG compression employs what is termed lossy compression. That is, in saving storage space some image information is lost.The discarded information thrown out is considered a duplicate of information already captured. Although some information is restored when the file is opened for editing, printing, e-mailing or scanning, some information is lost forever.

How to Save JPEG Images For Best Quality

 

JPEG image quality will be suitable for the needs of most amateur photographers and  photographer who knows how to use image-editing software.After editing a JPEG image, the photographer should not save it in JPEG unless that is the final edit. That's because each time a JPEG image is saved, some of the image is compressed and, therefore, some image quality is lost.

 

TIFF

 

TIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format and has the file extension .tif. For the photographer who wants no loss of image data and, therefore, a higher quality unedited photo than JPEG offers, TIFF is the way to go. TIFF is compatible with a lot of hardware and sofrware. The drawbacks of TIFFare its very large files and that it is usually offfered only on DSLRs and high-end compact cameras.

TIFF files can be compressed using LZW (Limpel-Zev-Welch) compression. LZW compression is termed lossless, which means that no image information is lost. However, it is suggested that compression of TIFF images be limited to illustrations. Do not use it for color photos.

RAW

 

RAW. The RAW file extension is .raw. It is an alternative to TIFF. Even though TIFF files retain all the information captured by the camera, they do make use of in-camera processing. RAW files, on the other hand, retain all image date without using in-camera processing. RAW images are, therefore, unprocessed images that contain all the data captured by the camera's sensor.
Working with RAW is time-consuming, however, because all images need post-shooting processing. But RAW is the universally accepted file format for most professional photographers. They use it because it gives them complete control over how their images will look. But there is no universal RAW format. That is where DNG comes in.

 

DNG

 

DNG stands for Digital Negative and its extension is .dng. This format was developed by Adobe Systems in an attempt to establish a universal file format for storing RAW files for posterity. Since most RAW software is manufactuer-specific, Adobe has developed a RAW system that is not camera-specific.

 

information from suite101.com

 

 

 

Fashion Photography Tips

There are many techniques for creating beautiful fashion photography, but it begins with getting the right lighting. Light is the tool you'll use to sculpt your photograph. How you use the light you work with will typically be the deciding factor between a photograph that is truly worth a thousand words and one that can be tossed in the trash. Here are some lighting tips you can use to turn your images into something memorable. 

Lighting

Soft Lighting 

 

Soft lighting is almost always the way to go in a fashion shoot. Soft lighting helps hide blemishes. Harsh light not only brings out flaws, it can create the illusion of flaws that aren't actually present. Fluorescent lighting is a particularly off limits. Soft yellow or amber-based lighting works well, but it's best to use natural lighting whenever possible.

 
Avoid Built-In-Flash

 

Built-in flash is too weak to properly light a subject more than 13 feet away. Also, built-in flash almost always produces red eye when the subject looks directly into the photo camera. Use speed lighting or strobes when you want flash to light your subject. If you find yourself in a situation where you have no option other than built-in flash, have your subject turn slightly away from the camera or bring up the ambient light in the room. 

Creative Lighting 

 

To bring out the best in your model, you will want to apply a few creative lighting techniques. Some of these include using strobes on both sides of your model to create shadows that will add depth to your shot. Another effective lighting technique is to backlight your model. Backlighting involves lighting your subject from behind, as the name implies, which helps minimize the background and bring out the contour of your subject. 

Natural Light Effects

If you want warmer tones using natural light, do your photo shoots in the morning or in the evening, during the magic hours, which are the first and last hours of the day. In photography, these times are also called the golden hour. Schedule shoots for these times when you can. Shooting at midday, when the sun is above you, creates a blue overcast and harsh shadows. This may be useful to obtain a specific look, but it typically doesn't work well for fashion shoots.

Three most important Fashion Photography tips 

 

1. Be sure that you are controlling the situation. Photographers need to have the leadership skills needed to take control of various situations. You should be able to tell your subjects to move a little bit here or maybe change location entirely if the background is not right. It is your discretion which will help create a good quality photo for your subject. Remember, it is better to take command than have second rate pictures.
 

 2.  Be sure that you focus on the eyes if you are dealing with humans and animals. This is true when you are shooting portrait photographs, or if your subjects are people or animals. They say that the reason for this is due to the fact that we usually focus on the eyes first in looking at pictures.  This will help increase the quality of your portrait photograph.

 3. Avoid cluttered backgrounds. This will make sure that the subject is not drowned in the sea of background. A cluttered background will drive the focus away from your subject. Make sure that your subject is in focus to eliminate background noise.

 

Fashion Photo Gallery

 

 

Panoramic Photography

Panoramic photography is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with elongated fields of view. It is sometimes known as wide format photography.his generally means it has an aspect ratio of 2:1 or larger, the image being at least twice as wide as it is high. The resulting images take the form of a wide strip.

 

What equipment do I need?

 

Tripod

Tripod

By using a tripod you can ensure that the camera rotates around a fixed spot and that it stays level. It also makes it much easier to take longer exposures, which may be useful if you want to get a nice sharp picture with everything in focus. You can use a monopod, but you will have to hold it (which means more chance of camera shake and of the position changing between shots. A monopod is useful if there is no space for a tripod, and you can get long poles for shooting panoramas high up (these are in effect monopods) - for examples see AGNOS
Check that you can lock the head of the tripod firmly and that it doesn't wobble when locked. If it does it will be difficult for you to make sure the camera stays level while you are shooting, especially if you have a large camera or if you use a panoramic head , because the weight may make the tripod's head even more unstable.
If you do not use a tripod or fail to keep the photo  camera level, you may have problems stitching your pictures (depends on the software used) and you may end up having to crop your panoramas down, thereby reducing the vertical field of view . This is not true if you shoot a spherical panorama as you can re-align the panorama afterwards in software.

 

Spirit level

A spirit level is a pretty essential extra and you can buy very cheap little spirit levels designed to fit into the hot shoe of an SLR photo camera . Use the spirit level to make sure the tripod's head is level and that when you attach the panoramic head and photo camera, that these are level also.
If you shoot spherical panoramas you do not need to set up the panoramic head to be perfectly level since you can realign the stitched image with the horizon afterwards in software. However a spirit level like this is, in my opinion, nevertheless an essential piece of equipment.

Remote shutter release

If you find that you are doing long exposures quite often, then a remote release cable or an infra red remote release can be useful. By using this you also reduce the likelihood of accidentally knocking the tripod or camera while you are doing the shoot. If you are using a digital SLR photo camera and it has mirror-lockup, using that feature with a remote shutter release allows you to minimise vibrations when you shoot the panorama.

Panoramic head ("pano-head")

Pano-head

A panoramic head is an additional attachment you put on the top of the tripod before you attach the photo camera. It allows you to position the camera so that as you pan to take each picture you are rotating around the no-parallax-point of the photo camera lens. This in turn eliminates parallax which could otherwise prevent you achieving a sharp high-quality panorama. If you look closely at the object movie of the Kaidan Kiwi 900/950 panoramic head you will notice that the centre of the lens is above the point of rotation and that the camera is rotating about a point in the lens, not the photo camera body. For more information see the description of parllax and the article about using a panoramic head.
Panoramic heads also make it easier to rotate the camera smoothly and many have click-stops of some kind and a spirit level. These features are also available in the Q-top, which is a very neat small tripod mount that provides a quick release shoe for the camera. The shoe is held very tightly in position when placed back onto the mount, and the shoe has 30 degree increments to make it easy to shoot a series of pictures for a panorama. But the Q-top is no substitute for a panoramic head.

Wide angle lens

By shooting several pictures and stitching them together, you can create a 360 degree panoramic picture, no matter what lens you have on your camera. A wide angle lens has the advantages that you don't need to take as many pictures and  you can capture more vertically so the picture doesn't look like a narrow 'slit'.If you are considering buying a wide angle lens for your panoramic photography, beware that some stitching software supports only rectilinear ('normal') lenses, some support fisheye lenses and some support both. Be particularly careful to check stitching software if you are intending to use a fisheye lens.If you are new to panoramic photography I suggest you postpone any ideas of buying a special lens until you have shot a few panoramic pictures... you will then have a good idea of whether you want or need a wide angle lens and how wide a lens you need to achieve the sort of pictures you want.An 8mm lens is generally the widest lens available for any camera, and on a full-frame camera will create a circular image that represents approximately 180 degrees in all directions. Unsurprisingly using an 8mm lens or equivalent is the easiest/fastest way to create spherical panoramas in which you can look straight up at the ceiling and straight down at the floor, and not just side to side. If you intend to buy an circular fisheye lens, remember that although there are many products that can stitch these images, not all can. 

Shooting the pictures

 

How many pictures?

Each picture should overlap with the next by up to 50% (or at least somewhere between 30 and 50%). But please note that providing you overlap each picture with the next, it doesn't matter exactly how much overlap you use, and the amount of overlap can be different between each pair of pictures. So, you can just guess 50% overlap and that will be fine. If you think you will need 10 pictures but you take 9 or 11, it doesn't matter!

 

Depth of field

Generally panoramic pictures capture a scene rather than a moment. In other words most panoramic pictures are of places rather than of people or events as such, therefore you will probably want to aim for a crisp picture that captures the entire scene through to the horizon. To do this you want to set a very large depth of field so that everything in shot is in crisp focus, by focusing on the hyperfocal distance.
When determining the depth of field you need, remember that when shooting indoors you do not need to focus further than the walls of the room and therefore you are likely to be able to widen the aperture and consequently reduce the exposure time.
Avoid altering the depth of field because to do this you will need to alter focus, and when you alter focus you subtly change the field of view of your lens. Most software cannot cope with a mixture of lenses being used for a panoramic sequence - they assume the same lens was used throughout, or more specifically that the lens was used with exactly the same settings.

Exposure

That leaves just one thing to play with. Exposure. You might have a scene in which everything is well lit in which case you can probably set an exposure for every frame. However you will quite often come across situations where the lighting changes. Lighting problems can perhaps be generalised as:

• areas of strong shadow in a scene where there is also strong light
• light directly at the camera in part of the scene

The first of these is more likely. I find it useful to spin my photo camera around the scene while holding the shutter button halfway . I can then instantly see whether there is going to be a problem because the photo camera will show me in the viewfinder the exposure it thinks is appropriate for each image. If the exposure changes dramatically I will have a problem: if I let the photo camera judge exposure, it will ensure each picture is as good as it can be. But that means any two adjacent images could differ greatly in lighting conditions so that a shadow in one is barely visible in another. That will confuse the stitching application.
I allow the exposure to change by no more than two increments between frames (e.g. if one shot was taken at 1/30sec then the next one should be no less than 1/60sec and no more than 1/15sec). If a scene contains a mixture of brighter areas and darker areas, I will meter correctly for an intermediate position, and then slightly over expose the dark areas (to make them lighter) and slightly under expose the light areas to make them darker. 




 Panoramic Photo Gallery

 information from panoguide.com

"Transformers 3" - Voltron Starshoter robot or camera?

The Voltron Starshooter 110 is a toy camera in the best meaning of the word. It looks like a cheap plastic fake SLR with viewfinder and awful plastic lens. But you have to play with it for finding out that it's much more a toy than many so-called "toy camera"s which often are just bad cameras. Then it unfolds and becomes a science fiction hero just like jumped out of the computer screen from a space invaders shooting game. But the puppet is also a camera, its shoulder region contains a real pocket camera for type No. 110 film cartridges. It was made in Macau (then Portugual, now China) for Impulse Ltd. of Missouri (USA) in 1985.
Great for that Transformers 3 premiere this summer! Burn!
Big comrads will take our planet at 01.07.2011 at cinemas...=)

information from camerapedia.wikia.com

HDR Photography

What is HDR Photography?

High Dynamic Range photography or HDR photography is an advanced set of photography techniques that play on image’s dynamic range in exposures. HDR Photography allows photographers to capture a greater range of tonal detail than any camera could capture thru a single photo.
While many imaging experts regard HDR photography as the future of digital photography, the discipline has long been in existence.
HDR photography is present in many pictures taken through modern day digital cameras. The truth is, if you are a real photography enthusiast then there is a great chance that you have taken at least one photo exemplifying HDR photography.
The real functions or even executions of HDR photography may be debatable. But no matter which website or source you consult they will always say it is a technique that employs the great use of exposure range to get distinct values between light and dark areas of the image. Its real intention is to create an image that accurately characterizes the intensity levels found in natural scenes. If you ever wondered why the picture you took was different from the scenery you actually saw, then maybe it’s time for you to learn HDR photography.
HDR Photography is the technique used to capture and represent the full  DR found in a scene with high perceptual accuracy and precision. To remember things better, think of the 3S: sunlight, shadows and subjects. These are the things that make an ordinary picture an HDR image.

Theory Behind HDR photography

There are two theories behind HDR photography. And as the technology around HDR photography evolves so is the discipline itself. But if one wants to take HDR imagery seriously then he must first understand the concepts and theories that make up this discipline.
The most fundamental of all HDR photography theories is to take multiple shots at varying exposure levels of a particular subject. A special computer program will then combine the images together into a single image. This is just an incarnation of the original theory during the time when there are no digital cameras and advanced computers and programs were nothing more than a work of science-fiction.
The second theory is the one that capitalizes on the RAW processing software to create various exposure levels of the same image. Modern Digital SLR camera and a lot of the Point and Shoot models allow photographers to capture RAW images. A RAW image or file is the data captured by your Camera’s sensor that is not processed yet and therefore does have color information. You can manipulate this file, adjust its color, lighting or while balance.

How to gather data for HDR photographs

Taking the images is the first stage in HDR photography. You can use a simple point and shoot camera or a fully configurable digital SLR camera.
In both techniques you will need a camera with configurable exposure settings. All DSLRs and most point and shoot cameras have this. Certain SLR cameras have bracketing function which makes it easier for photographers to change exposure settings.
For starters, you can use the following setting: ISO 200 and Aperture Priority Mode. And as they say good things come in threes, you can take picture with three different exposure settings: EV 0, EV -2 and EV +2. You can experiment more on these but generally speaking, the more exposure versions you can have, the better your final image will be.
It is recommended to use a tripod when taking HDR photo. This is because tripod stabilizes the photo camera and you need to get the clearest image you can get since you are experimenting on exposure values. The best way to do this is to use a shutter remote or if your photo camera doesn’t have one, just make sure you press the shutter button lightly.

Post-processing

 

Post processing is the last stage in HDR photography that you can really control. This is where technical skills merge with creative sensibility. And with the introduction of advanced digital cameras and photo editing software, HDR image post-processing is made a lot easier.
However, this does not guarantee that having an excellent HDR image will be as easy as clicking the shutter button. There may be times that the three or more images you took with varying exposure values are simply not enough. With this, the only chance you are left with is to do a post-processing of the image.
Post-processing generally involves color correction, saturation, contrast and brightness and darkness adjustment and other image element manipulation. But in HDR photography we need to concentrate on contrast and brightness and darkness adjustment. Brightness and darkness adjustment is the direct digital translation of exposure manipulation in the picture taking stage. If in the camera you adjust exposure settings, in the post-processing stage you will adjust the brightness.
The main advantage of process is surpassing the limitation of actually configuring your camera in different exposure levels. While some cameras may have eight exposure settings and therefore 8 different images, post-processing can simply give you a limitless number.
After the shoot, transfer the images to your computer. There is a merge to HDR feature in many photo editing software including Adobe Photoshop and above, Photomatix Pro, Dynamic Photo HDR and others.
Post-processing software also allows you to blend photographs with different exposures. This clearly increases the dynamic range of the final output photo. There is also tone mapping which reveals highlight and shadow details in an HDR image made from multiple exposures.

HDR Photo Gallery

information from pixiq.com

 

 

Macro Photography

Taking close-up pictures of small things is called "macro photography." I have no idea why. Perhaps because the small things in macro photography are generally larger than the things you are taking pictures of when doing "micro photography". If you really want to be pedantic then you should say you are doing "photomacrography".

What Kind of Camera

Point and shoot digital cameras can have remarkable macro capabilities, but for best results you want a single-lens reflex camera. These allow you to attach special-purpose macro lenses and show you in a bright optical viewfinder what you will get on the sensor.
A typical setup might be a Canon Digital Rebel XTi  with a Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM . This lens is designed for the small-sensor Canon cameras and gives a working distance equivalent to 100mm on a full-frame photo camera. The lens is specified to focus down to "1:1" or "life size". This means that the smallest object you can photograph that will extend to the corners of the final digital photo will be the same size as the sensor inside the Canon Rebel camera, 15x22mm. A professional photographer might use Canon EOS 5D  and a lens designed for full Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM. Confusingly, this lens is also specified to focus down to "1:1", but this time the sensor is 24x36mm in size, the old 35mm film standard. So you can't take a photo of something quite as small as with the cheaper equipment.
In the film world, the 35mm photo camera systems had comprehensive range of macro lenses and accessories and some medium format systems, such as the Rollei 6008 would have at least a few lenses and extension tubes. Only the extremely patient ever did macro photography with a 4x5 inch view photo camera.

Close-Up Lenses

Your eyes don't focus so great on really small things either. Do you try to pull your cornea a foot away from your retina? No. You stick a magnifying glass in front of your cornea. You can do the same thing for your normal lens. Unlike your cornea, it even has convenient threads for attaching a magnifying glass. The magnifying glass screws into the same place where a filter would go.



Macro Lenses

The best macro lenses are the latest autofocus mount models made by Canon and Nikon, typically in focal lengths ranging from 50 to 200mm. Each lens will focus continuously from infinity to 1:1. You can shoot the moon and capture the bear claw without stopping to change lenses or screw in filters. How do these lenses work? Do they just have a much longer helical than the 50mm normal lens? Yes and no.

 

Macro Zoom Lenses

Macro zoom lenses are not macro lenses. They don't allow significantly greater magnification than a 30mm or 50mm normal lens and they deliver low quality.


Exposure

Unless you are using close-up lenses, when doing any kind of macro work, you always have to consider the effective f-stop. Even if you are using the SLR body's built-in meter, which will correct automatically for light loss, you can't turn off your brain. Why not? Because the effective aperture affects picture quality.
Taking pictures through a pinhole results in tremendous depth of field but very low sharpness due to diffraction. This is why lenses for a 35mm film camera stop at f/22 and don't go to f/45 or f/64. Large format camera lenses provide these smaller apertures for two reasons: (1) the lenses are longer (f/64 on a 210mm lens is not all that small a hole); (2) the negative won't be enlarged very much.
If you're at 1:1 and have selected f/22 on the macro lens barrel, you need to look at the lens markings and/or the close-up exposure dial in the Kodak Professional Photoguide to learn that your effective aperture is f/45.
If you're using a handheld meter, you absolutely must use these corrections (e.g., meter says f/22 but you're focussed down to 1:1 so you set f/11 on the lens barrel).

Lighting

A good quick and dirty lighting technique is to use a through-the-lens (TTL) metered flash with a dedicated extension cord). A modern handheld flash is extremely powerful when used a few inches from a macro subject. That lets you stop down to f/16 and smaller for good depth of field. You can hold the flash to one side of the subject and have an assistant hold a white piece of paper on the other side to serve as a reflector. If you want a softer light, you will have enough power in the flash to use almost any kind of diffusion material. The TTL meter in the camera will turn the flash off when enough light has reached the sensor.
Lighting is the most important and creative part of any kind of photography.

Focus

With a depth of field of around one millimeter for precise macro work, camera positioning and focus become critical. If you have a good tripod and head, you'll find that you have at least 10 controls to adjust. Each of them will move the camera. None of them will move the camera along the axis that you care about.
That's why people buy macro focusing rails, e.g., Adorama Macro Focusing Rail . These are little rack and pinions capable of moving the entire camera/lens assembly forward and back. You use the tripod to roughly position the camera/lens and then the macro rail to do fine positioning.
The photos below are snapshots from the garden of the Getty Center. They were taken with a fancy Canon EF 180mm f3.5L Macro USM , but without a tripod.

Macro Photo Gallery

 information from photo.net

Night Photography

Equipment Required

 I recommend following equipment to use.

• Digital camera
• Tripod
• Remote shutter release
• Something to do while exposing your shot

Now let’s get down to business. First, set your tripod up at the desired height, to save you any trouble later on make sure your tripod is level. You will thank me. Now, mount the camera on the tripod making sure it’s secure.

Setting Up Your Shot

 

Switch your photo camera to manual. OK, you’ve got this far it’s going good, time to set up the shot. Don’t bother composing your shot just yet as we have to sort some other things out first. Set your photo camera to auto-focus or AF. This may not work depending on the conditions but most of the time it will work just fine. Zoom in all the way and find a light source or light area that is the same distance away as the subject you want in focus, press the shutter half way down. Once the photo camera has focused on the light source or light area zoom all the way out  and make sure, without touching the shutter or the focus ring switch back to manual focus. Be sure you’re not touching the focus ring when you compose.
Now you have the camera focused you can proceed to compose the shot. This is something that no tutorial can tell you how to do, this is in the eye of the photographer. Be creative and show off your creative eye.

Tip: Wide angles create a bigger impact than longer focal lengths.

 

Setting The Correct Exposure

 

You’re almost there, the next major part is getting the exposure right, this is easy if you know how. The best way to expose your shot manually is to use your photo camera’s built in light meter as a rough guide, but not as a precise judge. When you first start you will need to follow it tightly but as you gain more and more experience you won’t need the meter at all.
Change the photo camera to AV mode(Aperture priority) Now, set the ISO to 1600. As a rough guide I recommend you stop down the aperture to f/8 to achieve maximum sharpness when using the Canon 18-55mm kit lens but you may need to keep it at f/3.5 depending on the conditions. Now, press the shutter half way and you will see the light meter, it’s a line with a small arrow, this will move around as you change the aperture. Adjust aperture accordingly so it makes the line stay in the middle. Once it is in the middle, press the shutter down half way. The photo camera will give you the shutter speed that you require, make sure you remember this number as you will need it to work out how long your final exposure will be.
For this next part you may need a calculator, depending on how good your mental arithmetic is. Now we need to calculate how long we need to keep the shutter open for. As an example we will say the photo camera gave you a shutter speed of 10 seconds when we used the light meter, keep this number in your head. Now set the ISO to 100. Take your number (In this example 10 seconds) and multiply that number by 16. This gives us 160 seconds, Divide this by 60, this gives us about 3 minutes.
Now plug in your remote shutter release, set the photo camera to BULB mode (move the shutter down past 30 seconds). Get a timing device (Phone, stop watch ) and get it prepared to begin. Press the remote shutter release and lock it on. Start the timer.
If you want to be certain of good exposure then you can round it up to the nearest minute (In our case 3 minutes). Once you have reached the target time, unlock the remote shutter release and wait for the photo camera to proceed with noise reduction.
The end result will be a nicely exposed picture.


Gallery Of Night Photography

information from adcuz.co.uk