Category: Photography
-
So… what’s all this about EVs and F-stops and stuff?
Sometimes, when people see me dragging a large camera and some heavy lenses and tripods around, they assume I know a bit about photography. Or sometimes I just mutter something obtuse like “an F-number is just a ratio between lens opening and focal length” that tips them off. Fact is, I grew up in an…
-
Adobe Customer Support — A Tale Of Woe
The kindest thing I could possibly say is “there is potential for improvement”. Earlier this year, I decided to quite Adobe Photoshop Elements, in favour of a photo-centric Adobe CS solution, containing Lightroom and Photoshop. On the positive side: the capabilities of this suite, especially Lightroom, goes way beyond what you can do with Photoshop…
-
July: aaand we’re back!
Many good things happened, most of them caused by an increase in mental energy. The effect of the medication I stopped back in May is wearing off, and I really feel like doing stuff again! So, what did I do? First thing is, Janny wanted something to watch birds with, but also possibly planets and…
-
The Poor Man’s Home Photo Studio
I have a little budget-on-a-shoestring photo studio setup here. It went through several stages, mostly stages of woe, until I settled on what I use now. I started out using various cheap RF camera triggers, and corresponding receivers for the flash units, a flash meter, two secondhand flashes, cardboard home-made light shapers (soft box, snoot,…
-
How I photograph paintings – on a budget
As you may have read somewhere else, my beloved is a painter (she’ll deny it, but it’s true). She works with oil on canvas, and has recently also picked up aquarels. My task is to photograph her pictures as accurately as possible, for her portfolio web site. Mind you: this is not a howto! What…
-
The Gear Factor
No, this is not the eternal Canon vs. Nikon debate… if only because I avoided that route altogether (more on that later). This goes into the question itself — does it matter what gear we use? Without further ado, here’s my version of The Answer: 1. It depends on the photographer’s personality Some of us…
-
Heavy machinery
On how the Dynax 7 refuses to give up its crown without a fight In a prior article, I summed up the difference between the Minolta Dynax 800si and the Dynax 7. The Dynax 7 is my favourite Minolta autofocus film camera, with one caveat: it appears to have a well-earned reputation for dying horribly…
-
How to have fun with a tripod
Or how some affordable accessories will make your tripod a lot more useful I already owned a Velbon Carmagne 603 carbon tripod when, recently, I got me a surprisingly useful travel tripod from a Chinese manufacturer. The reason for getting the travel tripod is because the Velbon was pretty bulky, and very unwieldly to be…
-
Why I love to photograph from a tripod
Sometimes I work from a tripod because circumstances dictate a long exposure time. That actually makes sense.And sometimes, I work from a tripod because I find that this forces me into a different, slower, more dedicated mode of photography. The mere act of getting the camera on a tripod apparently slows me down, and this…
-
The best tripod is… the one you take with you.
I had a nice Manfrotto 055B with a 029 head.I still have a Velbon carbon tripod with a Velbon head, which is way better than it’s entitled to be. For all practical purposes, it’s every bit as good as the Manfrotto was, but lighter. Problem is, I rarely carried either of the two. Too long…