photo weblogger

Since its first day the digital photography has revolutionary changed . Suddenly, everyone has got the opportunity to experiment with the photos as he wants. Maybe the professional photographers would not probably consider this fact as an advantage, because of the exponentially increasing number of annoying wannabe photographers, but the many amateur photographers really appreciate this opportunity. Besides it was invented new and interesting techniques that were difficult and expensive to implement in the time of analog photography. These include, for example, HDRI and painting with light. I guess that every amateur photographer has already got his experience with HDRI, so I have nothing new to say. The painting with light on the contrary, I find very interesting, especially because this technique is not very common, but very interesting. Although I can hardly imagine how to create a work of art with it, but if you would like to try something new, this issue is quite significant.
The technique is easy. You wait until the sundown and the Blue hour begins. Then you take a light source such as LED flashlight, set the exposure time of the camera to BULB and «paint» something with the flashlight in the air. The result looks very funny and with a little creativity you can get really great snapshots.

There is a rule, according to which the exposure time should be selected so that it avoids camera shakes. You must divide a second by the focal length of the lens to get the maximum exposure time. If you choose a longer exposure time, then the probability is high that the photo will be not sharp and that regardless of how good the device is that you used. According to my observations, I, think, that this rule is not perfect. If you really wish to get sharp image, you need to select an exposure time which is not longer than 1 / 250 sec. This is also true for focal lengths, which are smaller than 250mm. Only experienced photographers are able, to use longer exposure times and get sharp photos.
There are only 2 ways to deal with this problem.
The first possibility is to use lens with has image stabilizer. Some SLRs have an image stabilizer even in the camera, for example Sony. This possibility has the advantage that you steel have a chance to get a good image althogh of poor light conditions. The problem is that the lens with image stabilizer are very expensive and the image stabilizer also has its technical limitations.
The second option is to use a tripod. Here you get the advantage that you can use any exposure and avoid camera shakes. The disadvantage is: you need to have the tripod always ready and it takes a lot of space and the weight of it is often enough to get back pain at the end of the day.

Although I believe that my photographs not really professional, because of the lack of experience, there are some people who found them well. Sometimes someone asks me what do you need to do to learn making of really good photos. Of course, you should first lern the technique, with which you are make the photos, I reply. This is a very important aspect, although not the most important. After you understood the necessary technical basics, it is really very beneficial to look the creative works of other photographers, to analyze foreign ideas and to create your own based on them. No book will explain better or inspire you, except a collection of really creative photos. Such books will be called – picture books. There are lots of them from National Geographic and also TASCHEN offers a wide selection. The books of National Geographic are thought for the mass, because these are picture books with many beautiful nature photos and TASCHEN, as I get the impression offers books that would be interesting for people who really understand photography as art.

On dpreview.com, I read about Nik Sharpener Pro software. A version 3.0 of Sharpener Pro is available on the official developer homepage so you can download and test it for 15 days.
The special highlight of it is that it not only as a simple plug-in for Photoshop to sharpen image, but also it offers a possibility to RAW sharpering. It is possible to select areas that are should be sharpened so that only certain image areas will be sharpened. This is very important because it can prevent artifacts, which are often could be found on images, made in low light conditions.
To use RAW sharpening effectively, you should, disable in Photoshop the integrated RAW converter. By default it is on.
There is also a very important feature integrated in this version of the software. It is a possibility of sharpering of certain colors independently of each other. This helps in some situations enormous. For example, if you have to develop a macro image of a flower.

Finally, my lens 70-200 4.0L USM has arrived. At this moment I have waited a long time, but the waiting has been worthwhile at the end. The lens is simply cool. This applies both to the body, as well as for the quality of the images. I have already shot some photos and am very pleased with the quality of the images. I’m able now to photograph wild animals without intrude into their privacy and still make good pictures. In addition, I can now make good portrait photos. Thanks to the constant 4.0 aperture value when photographing a person I’m getting really well blured background. The sharpness is very high, so I don’t need to do use photoshop for the most images to adjust the sharpness. Sure, if you use a kamera with this lens without a tripod, it is fairly difficult to avoid the moving unshaprness, but you could train this. If the weather is good, you can also the exposure time to minimum, thus helping to minimize the moving unsharpness.
I noticed, the lens has a switch that should be in the right position, depending on on a minimum distance (1.2 meters) or a distance more than 3 meters. This is not particularly useful, since I always forget, to switch it, but I can live with.
I hope that I find time today to fill out the cash-back form and send it to Canon. Thus, I can save a further 50 euros.
I have big plans with this lens that I simply do not know where to start. My greatest wish is to make a photo from a beautiful bird in flight. I’m sure, it will be not a easy task, because this lens is without a stabilizer. I think I take the weekend in order to make those photo. I hope that the weather will be sunny soon, because with thet weather, what we have today, it will be very difficult to use short exposure. If the weather will be bad, I try to photograph my friends in a self-made studio at home.

After the purchase of my new SLR digital camera, I immediately wanted to try out all the benefits of this technology and went to search for a new lens. Since I already had the Kit lens with a focal length of 18-55mm, it was not needed for me to buy an alternative to this lens, but I wanted a telephoto lens to make portraits and Wildlife photos.
After some consideration, I decided to buy a lens of the Canon brand, although lenses of this company are often much more expensive than comparable models from the competition. As possible candidates were Canon 70-300mm with image stabilizer + USM and f4-5.6 and 70-200 4.0 USM. I read a lot about the quality of the L-Series and that’s why I decided at the end for this series.
I usually buy everything at Amazon, because the price is reasonable and delivery is quickly. This time it should be otherwise, because Amazon offered the same lens 150 euros more expensive than other sellers. But because I wanted to pay with a credit card, the number of sellers was significantly less. When I finally found a seller, I immediately started the ordering process. The problem was that I was not at home and I don’t know my credit card data by heart. I noticed that only after I got a page where I was promted to fill out the data of my credit card. Then I broke the order and set my laptop to sleep mode. When I came home, I started the order from the last step. Although I knew that with the change of IP address and timeout of my session the order was aborted, I decided to to continue the order process, becausthing to lose. There should be 2 possibilities. The ordering process could be continued or I get an error message and start ordering from the beginning. Unfortunately I could not afford that payment through an external payment system such as PayPal is independent from the order session. I have paid the money to the dealer, without to leave the order in his system. After several questions, I got a confirmation that my order was manually entered into the system. However now this lens were purchased by someone else and no longer in stock. I have to wait a few weeks. I think it is OK, because I save € 150.

Actually, I was very satisfied with my old bridge digital camera from Sony. The quality of the images, thanks to the large CMOS sensor and Zeiss lens made it to the one of the best cameras in category of non-proffessional cameras. But sometimes I noticed that the autofocus for action shots is to slow. It took 2 days, for example, to take a really good picture of a seagull in flight. It was completely imposible to take pictures in RAW, because the saving process of a 20 megabyte RAW file takes several precious seconds. Hundreds of shots I had refused only because of the autofocus problem and although I was very satisfied with the result picture, I understood that my skills could be properly deployed only with the purchase of a quick reflex camera.
There were 2 possible candidates: Canon EOS 400D and EOS 30D.
The price difference was less then a hundred euro, but because I was already at the limit and had no patience, I decided for the cheaper option, namely: – 400D. I do not know exactly whether my decision was good or not, but my problem was solved. The RAW files size is about 8 megabytes and the saving to a memory card is very quickly, the auto focus is even with a kit lens (18-55) are much faster than Sony R1 one. The operation of the camera is in my opinion, very intuitive and much better resolved than in my old camera. The only thing I miss is LCD display from R1. With it you can take really interesting pictures, from unusual perspectives.
What I would like to highlight as important is the sensor from 400D, because of it ability to take images without noise at ISO 800. In April, when I was in Rome and made pictures from St. Peter’s, I was particularly pleased that I had my 400D. With Sony R1, it would be almost impossible, to get so good pictures without using of NeatImage, which would have significant reducing of quality as consequence.
And here are a few pictures, which I made with my new 400D:

I ordered it on Friday and now I have it.
The first thing that I looked for is a country, where my Sony R1 was made.
And this was a good surprise for me. The camera was made in Japan and not in China or Malaysia.
The second good surprise was an EVF (Electronic View-Finder). It is a very useful feature.
There are some things that I find not good. The quality of case could be better and video-recording feature is absent. Actually, I don’t need video recording functionality, but if I pay so much money, I would like to have all functions of modern digital cameras.
I will soon public my photos here, but at first I would like to get similar with R1. This is my first camera of that class, that’s why I must spend a little time to understand how it works

At last it is a time for Photokina. Photokina is a wordwide biggest photo-exhibition. It takes 09/26/2006 in Germany place. My ticket is already ordered and I hope it will be delivered to me at right time. I’m waiting for this moment 2 years.

On Photokina Zeiss introduced their new objective. It was a 1700-mm telephoto with illumination F4. The weight of this objective is 256 kilograms. It is a biggest objective that I’ve ever seen.
It has 15 lenses that ordered in 13 groups. Some of those lenses are more expensive than a limousine. Unfortunately the price of this device is not known, but I think that it is not a mass product.