I found this page today that is really helpful in demonstrating the effects of different shutter speed and aperture settings on an exposure. Play with the settings and see the effects on both exposure and depth of field. This might be one of the most usefull tools I've found to explain the relationships between shutter speed, aperture, depth of field and exposure because you can try them all till you get something that works for you.

Click here to go to the page

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Posted by Allen Rockwell at 10:14 AM | Permalink

Chris from the Tips From The Top Floor podcast at www.tipsfromthetopfloor.com recently released two podcasts (#185 and 186) on a product called Disco Film.

Discofilm is a product that is designed for cleaning the crap out of the grooves in record albums. If you don't know what a record album is you need to go away, you are too young to be here :)

Discofilm is a liquid that is brushed on to the record and it dries into a film that can be peeled off. When the film is peeled off it takes all the dust and crap that was embedded in the grooves.

Chris' guest discovered that this product was a great product for digital camera sensor cleaning. Please go to Chris' site and view the video podcast to see how it work.

The problem with Discofilm is that it's a German product that does not seem to be available in the rest of the world. After watching the video podcast (#185) and listening to the audio podcast (#186) I figured out that Discofilm is most likely a liquid latex rubber. ... and I just happed to have some in my garage. So an experiment was certainly in order.

As you can see from the photos below, my experiment was a sucess.

If you are interested in using this technique to clean your sensor and want to use this material please keep in mind that I am not reccomending this technique or material ... I'm just telling you that my test (on a CD ROM) worked and left no residue.

The liquid latex I used is packaged by Woodland Scenics and sold in hobby shops that sell model railroading products. Here is a link to Woodland Scenics that will allow you to buy it online Click here for Woodland Scenics

Technorati Tags: Digital Photography, Allen Rockwell, Sensor, Clean, Sensor Cleaning

Posted by Allen Rockwell at 08:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is a simple tip, but sometimes when we are out shooting we forget the simplest things. sometimes you can change a photo dramaticly just by changing your lens and/or angle.

In the two photos below I captrued a very beautiful Super Decathlon airplane at the 2006 AOPA Convention in Palm Springs California.

The first photo is a very nice shot of the plane taken with my Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens, this lens takes great photos and there is nothing at all wrong with the photo ... however it really doesn't grab me and pull me in.

In the second photo I used my Canon 15mm Fisheye lens and got a little lower. I think this shot is far better than the first one. The second shot feels more dramatic, and includes more of the surrondings (like the palm trees).

I find that Fisheye lenses are handy for aircraft and automobile photography. Try it sometime. If you don't own a Fisheye, rent one for a day and see if you like it.

Canon 24-70mm f2.8 L (click image to enlarge)

Canon 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye (click image to enlarge)

Technorati Tags: Digital Photography, Allen Rockwell,

Posted by Allen Rockwell at 06:52 PM | Permalink

Photography Tips – Things to remember when on location.

The first three are acronyms that make it easy to remember the tips when you are out in the field.

SAS
Subject – What is the subject
Attention – Draw attention to the subject, Get closer, Position the subject
Simplify – Simplify the shot, Exclude distracting elements or elements that do not add anything to the shot


EDFAT
Entire – Shoot the entire scene, get it all
Details – Shoot the detail shots
Focal Length – Try different lenses and move in and move out
Angle – Try different angles … high, low, left, right, behind, above, below…
Time – Morning, afternoon, dusk, sunrise. Also different shutter speeds


LUDA
Look Up
Look Down
Look All Around … the shot may not be right in front of you!

Personal rule #1: Never go anywhere without my camera. I keep both DSLRs, all lenses and tripod in my truck at all times, I keep my Canon S3 IS point and shoot in my "man bag" (no, damn it, it's not a purse) at all times.
Personal rule #2: Take at least 10 photos every day. This almost always turns into hundreds of photos ... You can't just take 10.
Personal rule #3: Get closer!

Posted by Allen Rockwell at 09:11 PM | Permalink