Save Every Precious Moment (in any lighting condition)

Many people, when they have to take pictures under an extreme-unfavorable lighting condition, they either have it too dark or too bright, then either they have to repeat taking the picture by setting the exposure correction or they lost the moment once and for all.

Here the trick that I usually do, under the condition above or even just in the time when I have to make sure all picture I take during that moment could be used, I always put the bracketing setting "ON". Please note, not all DSLR could support the bracketing mode, you may want to look at your manual book to find out how to set your camera with bracketing mode. When the lighting contrast is "bad", I normally set the bracketing from -2/3,0,+2/3 to -1,0,+1. But in case of "worse" lighting contrast, for example when you are at the dessert with very bright sun light, on the beach, etc, then you might really want to consider to put it to -2,0,+2. 

Sometimes you will find picture with "no" exposure correction turn out to be useable, but in this case, I would like to talk about, saving every precious moment, meaning, none of the picture could be failed. 

When you do the bracketing, there are couple of things to be considered.

1. Never set your ISO to automatic.

2. Set your camera to aperture value setting.

and the most imporant thing...

DON'T FORGET TO TAKE THREE PICTURES IN A ROW

otherwise, you will ruin either your current picture or the next round bracketing.

*_* good luck, and have fun............

Canon 7D vs Canon 5D Mark II, which one is for me??

There were couple of people asking me, "which canon is for me, 5D Mark II or 7D?"


My answer is : DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU DO
First, let's put the 1D and 1Ds out of this discussion, there is no way to compare ducks to swans LOL.
Normal D-SLR for amateur, including Canon 50D, is made with fully automatic options which could permit you to take whatever picture under whatever conditions, thanks to its incorporate flash, even though the result is only "so so".
When you consider yourself as a passionate, or experienced amateur, then you can consider to upgrade your camera to Canon 7D or Canon 5D mark II, again depends on what you do, where you will find the option button will be half empty since they took out all the automatic options on it. So, before that, make sure you are comfortable to take picture with the AV, TV and/or M mode.

let's start with 7D, one of the hot stuff from Canon. From the price point of view, of course it's a lot cheaper compare to 5D mark II, but consider also, that it's not a full frame camera and it's only has 18 megapixel CMOS censor. Ok it's only has ISO 100-6400 (expandable to 12,800) for shooting from bright to dim light. But it could take up to 8 foto per seconds which is almost double compare to 5D mark II, which could only take about 3-4 pictures per seconds. It also has better auto-focus, thanks to the new technology, with 19 points of auto focus, compare to Canon 5D mark II with it's older technology of auto-focus and only with 11 points instead of 19.
On the other hand, Canon 5D Mark II is a full-frame D-SLR with 21 megapixel CMOS censor, and ISO expandable to 25,600 for shooting in the dim light.
Why I said, the camera is depends on what you do ?
When you are like my husband, Julien, who has a style in photography more like a paparazi (he loves taking snapshot on the street and moving objects like sports events, etc), then first thing he would consider when he choose a camera is "how many pictures this camera could take per seconds?" and "how good is the autofocus?" , because every seconds is precious for him. He couldn't miss any of them. For a person with this kind of style in photography, then he should consider 7D (or go straight to 1D mark IV LOL).


For me, I love taking macro and landscape pictures, then I will just go with 5D mark II (or if budget permitted, jumped right to 1Ds mark III, but I will until the mark IV LOL). My object is a steady one, means 1 or 2 seconds late won't give any different. And I am also a type of person who really "care" about the "final printing" result (I always print some of my best shot in the size of poster, 50cms x 70 cms), that's why I "care a lot" about the size of my camera's frame. As I mentioned before, my object is a steady one, or I am the one who should be steady in taking the picture, that's why, I will use the tripod most of the time, then....who cares the ISO, the lowest, the better (high ISO will only produces noise on your pictures, think about that).


By describing two different persons with two different style of photography, I hope I could give you a bit idea about which camera you should go after, or at least, you are in the 3rd category of photographer that I happened forgot to mention. If so, then just reply to this dicussion, and let's see what I could do for you to "lighten" up your way of choosing ;)



NOVITA

How to : take picture of northern lights

No one will denied the chance to take a picture of northern lights when they could have one. But to take a really nice one could be tricky somehow. Theoritically, you can take one, even if you only have a compact camera with you (of course, there is always a limit for what a compact camera could do ). Anyhow, whatever camera you have, the one that you mustn't forget to have with you is a TRIPOD (preferably a sturdy one).

If you are using a compact camera, then, accesories you will need to worry about are the tripod and extra batteries. However, if you own a D-SLR, then you will start to make a list of things you need or "might want to consider" to have with you during this photo session.
- a lens with a nice aperture (preferably wide angle (max. 28mm) with the biggest aperture possible, around 1.8-2.8)
- remote control (so you don't need to touch your camera with your shaky fingers)
- a "huge" memory card
- a sturdy tripod
- extra batteries (in the cold weather conditions, the battery will be "used up" a lot more faster)

I won't go into the details about what you should wear, but I did wear clothes like if I want to do the exploration in the heart of the antartic (4 layers of clothes, plus a super warm boots, wind stopper gloves and warm hat). But honestly, taking picture when you were on sea is a lot warmer than if you were inland, but one thing for sure, a tight pair of jeans is not recommended for this activity, unless you want to catch cold.

If you were inland, you can put your camera on the AV mode even better if you are comfortable to work manually. The problem with the AV is since your camera works based on the aperture you choose, sometimes it takes away your liberty by giving you a long-pause (30 seconds), unless you want to harm your picture with the very high ISO (above 1600 ISO which I won't recommended to do so considering the noise which will presents on the picture later on). Since the object of our picture is the northern light which is far on the sky, then manual setting will be perfect, well, it will required some works at the beginning, and after that, it's you to choose the aperture and duration, of course ISO too. We don't really need to care about the auto focus, I will say, turn off the AF on your lens, and let it works with MF instead (put it to the infinity). My aperture preferance is 11, and I'll try to keep it on 15 - 20 seconds pause. Well, some people will tell you make it to 30 seconds, but let me say this, the northern lights' dance is depends on when the winds blows, so does the intensity, so when  you put your camera on a too long-pause you might risk to lose some of the movement (if it moves to the other side), or if it disappear all of sudden. No one can guarantee how long it will appear, and how big the size could be. It's part of mother nature, no one could give a fixed order for the appearance of the northern lights.

Above is the case if you try to take picture of the northern lights inland. Most of the challange will be if you are on sea. Imagine, that not only the northern light which will move, but also you, and worse, you can't even control the speed and movement of the boat (unless you are the captain of your own LOL). But this tricky condition could be mitigate with the TV mode on your camera. Depends on the lighting on the sea, but I will say, for the best result, try to keep your ISO between 800-1600, your speed shutter at 4-5 seconds pause, as inland, put your lens to the manual focus to infinity. In land, you might have a chance to use the ISO as low as 200 since you will have snow around you to reflect the light, however, on sea, in the other way around, you could only depends on the moon lit as your light sources.

Other thing I would like to add, since we can't really predict how long the dance would last, I strongly suggest everyone no need to check on pictures they just took on their LCD too much. Why? Because you will certainly wasting your precious time and you will used up your battery life. I took all my northern lights' picture on RAW file, not because JPEG file won't give you a bad result, the problem is, when you encounter lighting problems with your picture, then RAW will serve you the best by the time of editing.

I tried to put as many information as possible on this post. However, I am sure, I missed something on the way. If you have any question, please don't hesitate to write to me - right as comment, or to my email pyongbricole@gmail.com , I am not a genius, but I will certainly try to answer your question on my best.

*_* NOVITA