A-Photo Mag

Fotodiox Mount Adapters allow you to use your lenses on the film/digital camera body.If you have a SLR or DSLR camera and other maker/mount lenses, the Fotodiox Mount Adapters allow you to use your lenses on the film/digital camera body. Sharing lenses has some distinct advantages. Certain prime lens just cant be replaced, and you save cost of purchase lenses. Fotodiox offers a range of adapter from large format to smaller format digital adapters. Adapting larger format lens, i.e., large format  medium format, medium format  35mm, excellent edge-to-edge sharpness; and the smaller 24×36 mm image field helps minimize the effects of lens distortion and aberration.

Technical Details:

• All Metal Design
• Adapter Type: Nikon F Mount (F, non-AI, AI, AIS, AF, AFD) Lens to Canon EOS Body (film or digital)
• Smooth surface for effortless mount
• Infinity Focus Guaranteed
• Accurate Flange to Focus distances
• 24 Month Manufacture Warranty

This lens mount adapter allows Nikon F (F, non-AI, AI, AIS, AF, AFD) Mount Lens to fit on Canon EOS camera body. Although the lens will fit physically, automatic diaphragm, auto-focusing, or any other functions will not operate correctly while using this adapter. In this case “stop-down mode” will need to be used when metering since the lens does not have the ability to have its aperture controlled by the camera body. You can shoot with manual mode or aperture priority mode with EOS body. Infinity focusing is guaranteed.

Compatible Cameras

(not limited to the list, as long as the body takes a Canon EF lens): Canon EOS 1D, 1Ds, Mark II, III, 5D, 5D Mark II, 10D, 20D, 30D, 40D, 50D, Digital Rebel XT, XTi, XS, XSi 300D, 350D, 400D, 450D

BUY NOW Fotodiox Nikon F Lens to Canon EOS Camera Mount Adapter for Canon EOS 1d,1ds,Mark II, III, 5D, 5D Mark II, 10d, 20D, 30D, 40D, 50D, Rebel x1i, xt, xti, xs, xsi 300D, 350D, 400D, 450D, 500D, 1000D

BUY Gitzo G1377M Magnesium 3 Series PTFE Center Ball Head

Technical Details

• ball friction setting: yes
• lateral tilt: -90° / +40° tilt range, panoramic rotation: 360 °
• height: 5.31 in
• load capacity: 17.64 lbs, weight: 2.09 lbs
• plate type: fixed - with 1/4-20″ and 3/8″ screws
• Item Weight: 2.5 pounds

New high performance 3 series ball head suitable for loads up to 17.5
lbs. At the heart of this ball head is a precision-machined, Teflon
coated aluminum ball for ultra-smooth operation.

The G1377M incorporates a separate friction control which can be set to
counterbalance the weight of the camera, giving total control over the
finest of adjustments.

This head is supplied with a fixed round plate with reversible 1/4″ or
3/8″ camera fixing. There are two optional extra quick release adapters
available. The standard Gitzo Quick Release Adapter (G1285) and a new
Dovetail Quick Release System (G1387) which accepts standard Gitzo,
Arca, Graf, Kirk, and Foba plates.

Independent pan and tilt controls lock the head exactly where it is
set, without movement. All locking knobs have a rubber coating, for a
softer touch and excellent grip.

FEATURES

SEPARATE FRICTION CONTROL - By fine tuning the freedom of movement of the head, friction control makes the head slower and more precise or faster and looser. This feature also helps to make using heavy equipment or long lenses safer. On ball and fluid head models without separate friction controls, slowly adjusting the lock knobs gives similar results.

SAFE LOCK
Safe Lock is a special techno polymer that maximises locking torque and equipment stabilisation. It is used on the upper discs of tripods and heads, and in applications where the equipment is rotated and screwed onto the support to eliminate micro movements and vibration.

SEPARATE PAN CONTROL
When using a ball head, the ability to lock and unlock the panoramic movement independent of front-back or lateral tilt movements is convenient for panoramic photography and when a high level of control is required.

The rule of thirds is one of the simplest of photography rules that every student of the subject learns in the initial theoretical stages. It may not be a lot of fun to learn, but it is absolutely necessary to know how to use it and apply it in your photography.

The rule is quite simple – imagine if you could divide your image into thirds vertically and thirds horizontally, much like a tic tac toe grid. Now, the points of intersection of the vertical and horizontal lines are of interest to us. These, it is believed, are the points that the human eye goes to the instant it lays eyes on the image, even in the absence of the grid of course. It would be great then, wouldn’t it, if you could place your subjects within the composition so that they are near the points of intersection?

Check out the image of a man giving a penny to a lame beggar. Both the man and the beggar are perfectly placed, at points of intersection of the vertical and horizontal lines. Now, it is true that with journalistic images such as these, there is hardly any time for the photographer to think of and to apply something like the rule of thirds! However, it is also true that composition is a gift that comes naturally to some while others have to hone it in through practice. Use the rule of thirds when reviewing your images. Once you get an idea of what you need to shoot like, the rule will uncannily start to show up every time you shoot a well-composed image.

If you are shooting in a studio environment, or any pre meditated shoot for that matter, keep the rule of thirds in mind when planning the composition. And do remember, rules are meant to be broken they say, and there are no hard and fast rules in photography or any form of art for that matter. Rock musicians often break the natural flow of chords to create stunning effects, and photographers too can create fascinating pieces of art by applying or purposely breaking the so called rules. However, the key word here becomes control and awareness. Getting an image right by fluke is one thing, but getting it right through planning and execution is so much more fulfilling. That’s what makes a good photographer after all…

Try this simple experiment – take out many of your favorite images and see how the rule of thirds has worked for you. You will no doubt see a trend in your own photography. Maybe you like placing your subjects in the top right intersection. That could be your very own style! Finally, it would be great if you took a few purposeful photographs, applying the rule in some and breaking it in others. We’d love to hear how you managed to apply and break the rule and still come up with good photographs in either case.

Well, you could do it out of a studio as well! If you remember our last article on what makes shadow less lighting, this one would be much easier to understand, so we really suggest you read that before you get into this one.

As was discussed in the article titled ‘What Makes Shadow Less Lighting’, it is pretty simple to understand the difference between hard and soft, diffused light. Let us now learn how one can create diffused light. Usually, in most photographic applications, diffused light creates much more pleasing an atmosphere, and adds a nice touch to the image.

You must have seen studios with white umbrellas over the flash lights. That’s a fine way of creating diffused light. Alternatively, soft boxes of various sizes that fit on to your studio light create almost perfect diffused light. When you want the minimum shadows and the maximum soft effect of the light on your subject, you need to minimize the soft box-subject distance. Try this as a learning experience – use a small model subject under a soft box if it is available to you. Try photographing the subject with various light-subject distances to see the difference this has on your image. Of course you will need to make appropriate changes to exposure, since the intensity of light is greater at lower distances.

Many readers probably do not have their own studio apparatus. Do not be disheartened, you can create diffused lighting with your portable flash unit as well. If you have one with a swiveling head, turn it towards a wall, or bounce it off the ceiling to create a wonderful soft and diffused light with the flash unit. This is how wedding photographers are often able to provide awe-inspiring lighting with only a simple on-camera portable flash gun. If your flash head does not swivel around to point in various directions and/or angles, you could still do something about it. Use a bit of semi transparent paper over the flash head to diffuse the light. Remember to make adequate changes to exposure to compensate for the light loss. Of course, if you have an auto flash, you need have no worries about exposure, as long as you affix the paper over the flash’s ‘eye’ or sensor as well! It is quite simple to create diffused lighting isn’t it? All you need is a bit of creativity.

Here’s what NOT to do to create shadow less lighting with your flash gun…don’t use the flash on camera – straight on. If you have an adequate flash chord extension, you could even place your flash away from the camera, at an angle. That would give true modeling to the subject. It may not be soft lighting, but at least you will avoid the ugly shadow at the back, and give some modeling to your subject at the same time.

Experience with various kinds of paper and semi-transparent material in front of the flash head to get interesting lighting effects…

We see shadows all around us, in nature. The shadows are what help us see three dimensionally. To put that another way, the gradation from light to dark on the surfaces of objects helps us to see depth. We’ve covered that in another article with the example of a circle and a sphere, both represented on two dimensional paper. So, in the absence of shadows we see the world in a sort of two-dimensional way. That is not what shadow less lighting is all about by the way….just so you don’t get confused between the two.

By shadow less lighting, we refer to diffused light that does not cast a sharp shadow. Light that is not diffused, for example the flash light from a compact camera, casts a sharp shadow of the subject on the wall behind. That’s light that is NOT diffused. So what really causes this sharp shadow? Try this simple experiment – for this you will need a room with a bulb as well as a tube light. The bulb could well be a lamp light without a lamp shade. Now, switch on ONLY the bulb and hold your hand a few inches away from it. You see a shadow of your hand on the wall opposite. Next, switch off the bulb and switch on the tube light. Hold your hand near the tube light. No shadow! The bulb light is an example of light that is NOT diffused, and the tube light creates diffused light. The basic difference is – the bulb is a point light source (the light emanates from the filament of the bulb, which is pretty much a point source). The tube light on the other hand, is a diffused light source, meaning light does not emanate from any one point within the tube, but from all points on the surface of the tube, with equal intensity.

When you keep this simple idea of a tube and a bulb light in mind, you increase your control and understanding of diffused light, which is so often used in photography, especially in the studio environment. In reality, the tube light also creates a shadow, but a very soft one when compared to the point light source, the bulb. The shadows created by diffused light are much softer and thereby pleasing to the eyes. However, certain shoots call for the hard light of the bulb, the point light source. These may include a photo shoot that mimics the lighting from a spot light on a stage. So, let us not compartmentalize hard and soft lighting into good and bad categories, but rather get a better understanding on when and where each kind is required, and hone a better control over creating each kind of lighting artificially. In nature of course, the sun’s light is usually diffused by the clouds. However, on clear days when the clouds disappear, one can often see sharp shadows of people and objects, especially when the sun is high up at times like noon.

The camera obscura was a tool used by artists and painters of yesteryear, to accurately recreate the perspectives of a landscape, on paper. This device was very much similar in design to the basic camera. In fact it would be more apt to say that this is what evolved into the camera as we know it. It is a good learning experience to build one for yourself, to see how a lens creates an image.

You will need

1. A lens
2. A cardboard box
3. Semi transparent paper

Step One

Get yourself a lens. In fact you could take one out of an ordinary magnifying glass. Use a cheap one, its all you need. On the cardboard box, make a hole in the center of one of the sides, and affix the lens in it with glue or cello tape. Remove the plane of the box that is opposite to the lens plane. PS – Something like a show box would do fine for this project.

Step Two

You need to work out the  focal length of the lens. Point the lens (fixed in your box) towards a distance light source such as an overhead lamp or bulb. Use semi transparent paper to figure out the focal length of the lens. Do this simply by moving the paper plane towards and away from the lens plane. You would do well to affix the paper onto a cardboard frame of appropriate measurements, for this ‘focusing’ exercise. Fix the paper when the image is clear. You don’t really need to measure the focal length. On the other end, if the focal length of the lens used is already available to you, that would make matters much simpler. Simply fix the paper at a distance of the lens focal length, measured from the lens (lens plane i.e. The ‘front’ of the show box).

The semi transparent paper

Why we use semi-transparent paper is to allow a bit of light to pass through it. If this wasn’t the case, you would not be able to see the image from behind the camera obscura. Ground glass would be the most suitable material. However, for this simple home project you could use tracing paper, or even ordinary paper that has been coated with any variety of oil to make it semi-transparent.

The Learnings

Use the camera obscura to learn how a lens makes an image. Most people are surprised to see an upside down and mirrored image on paper, but that is exactly how your film or sensor sees it. When you shoot film, the mirror image is simply reversed during printing, and digital cameras have the inbuilt electronics to make the swap. However, high end view cameras require one to work with inverted images. For those about to start shooting large format, using a camera obscura can train the eyes to compose with inverted images. Use different ‘aperures’ of the lens by attaching cardboard rings to its surface. You’ll soon know how aperture affects depth of field and exposure.

A photomontage is the result you get when you use two or more images to make one composite result image. Like almost everything else in today’s world, there are two ways to make a photo montage – the old fashioned ‘manual’ method, and the digital one. 

The art of photo manipulation can be traced back to the initial years of photo process discoveries. However, photo montages were first made around the time of the First World War. At this time, montages were made using the double exposure techniques, and by placing objects on contact print machines. People also found it very amusing to make postcards of different heads on different bodies! In today’s world, the most common place photo montages we see are on cinema posters. Today, montages are made on computers using Photoshop, all over the world. You could make your own montages. Maybe you have a few family images you would want to put into one single frame…the key to an acceptable montage, at least by today’s standards, is to seamlessly add images to the frame. Meaning, the images should NOT look like they’ve been ‘cut’ and ‘paste’ from elsewhere. Let us go ahead and try and make a simple photo montage of just two images.

First, decide on the print size of your final image. We made our montage of 6 by 8 inch size. Open Photoshop. Open a new file under FILE-NEW. Enter the relevant parameters of resolution and width and height  on the dialogue box that pops up. Remember, you need to set resolution (DPI) to 300 for print, and 72 for web usage. Next, select the image that you would like to use for the montage. We open the two images that we need, which gives us three image boxes on our work space – 2 photographs, and one canvas for the final image.

Next, we cut out the areas of interest from both root images, and paste them into our final image canvas area. Instead of using accurate selection tools such as the pen tool, we suggest you make simple, basic selections using something like the lasso tool. Making montages is not very hard work! Just make a basic selection outline with one motion of the mouse, and then feather the selection to something like 50 radius on a 4 by 6 300 dpi root file. If that confuses you, no sweat…simply experiment with various feather densities until you are able to get a good fade-out affect when you paste the copied image into the canvas. To recap, we

1. Select an outline
2. Feather
3. Copy-Paste into the new canvas

Do this for both (or however many images you are using) image.

We took things one step further by converting the entire image to black and white and then adding the brownish sepia touch to it (refer to our article on sepia toning to learn how you could do this).

One of the first things we notice about an image is its sharpness level. Sharpness is associated with the quality of lens, the aperture used and critically, the point of focus. The more accurately you have focused on the subject, the better will be the overall sharpness in the image. Ideally sharpness is something that needs to be taken care of at the shooting stage and not the post production stage. If certain information is missing in the raw file from the camera, nothing on computer can mimic it. However, we definitely can increase the apparent sharpness of images that are not of very low quality in the first place. Do not use the techniques mentioned in this article as a rescue tool when you have made a boo boo in the shooting stage. Rather, use it as a touch up before final presentation of your images. Again, there is nothing that can replace a quality lens, the right aperture or the critical point of focus. Alright, lets get down to the photoshop bit -

Check out the two image above. The second one appears much sharper than the first, if you look closely. Let us learn how to do this. As usual, open up the image in Photoshop using FILE-OPEN. Once the image is opened, go to the filters menu and choose SHARPEN, and further choose UNSHARP MASK in the sub menu. Here you will be presented with three options.

Well, once you have the Unsharp mask options in front of you, you can begin sharpening the image. The first option, AMOUNT obviously controls the amount of sharpening that is applied to the picture. Instead of beginning with this, we suggest you start with the second control option of RADIUS. This effects the radius of pixels that are effected with the sharpening procedure. The levels of sharpening that you apply – the levels of the 3 tools you see in front of you, will vary depending on the resolution of the image, as with most Photoshop tools. The larger the dimensions of the image, for example, the larger will be the required pixel radius for sharpening. When you alter the variables in the sliding bars, you resulting effects will simultaneously be visible in the opened image. Experiment with radius and amount until you reach the desired effect. Beware-do not sharpen the image to such an extent that it is obvious to the naked eye – you begin to see high contrasts when you over-sharpen, and this is to be avoided at all times. The 3^rd and final tool on the Unsharp mask palette is the THRESHOLD tool. Use this to soften the sharpening effect if it is overly obvious after you’ve adjusted the first 2 sliding bars. We usually leave this alone and work with just the first 2 options of amount and radius.

You could use the SHARPEN EDGES tool under the SHARPEN menu to sharpen only the outlines of the subject. However, the technique mentioned above will give you much more acceptable and natural results. 

Photographing events and concerts of people that you admire and love is an exciting kind of photographic experience. Why, some even get so lucky as to have traveling jobs photographing their favorite bands and rock stars. We can’t promise you that you’ll land your dream job. But we CAN show you how to get better at photographing live concerts.

Use a High ISO

When photographing live shows, the best way you can capture the atmosphere of the moment is to use the existing lighting. Stage decorators and technicians go to great lengths to organize impressive stage lighting, probably coordinated with sound effects. It would be a pity to zap all that creativity away by using a fill flash or on-camera flash. So turn off your flash and turn up the ISO! Trust us; it’s worth the extra bit of grain at ISO 1600, than to have flat lit concert images that look like they’ve been taken by an amateur. While we do agree that lower ISO levels give the best quality, shooting concerts is more about getting the right timing than getting a high quality picture of a static moment…

Turn off the AF

Any auto focus mechanism requires a certain amount of minimum light level for it to work effectively. In concerts where the lights often flash, such as rock shows and dance events, this becomes difficult. The camera’s auto focus mechanism simply does not have the capability to focus when the lights are flashing on and off and varying in intensity as well. No camera in today’s market would be able to lock focus in such circumstances. This is why you could get off-focus images in low light conditions. The answer of course lies in switching the focus to Manual Focus. Many compacts apart from DSLRs of course, offer the manual focus feature. To make things even better, use as small an aperture as possible, so the depth of field is greatest. Again, read that as very high ISO levels to start with (out first tip).

Work to the music!

Say you’ve fired a few test shots in lighting similar to the stage at its brightest…and worked out an acceptable aperture-shutter aped-ISO combination…you are at the concert and ready to fire…how do you get your exposures spot on, how do you time your shots when the lights are constantly turning themselves on and off to the sound of music? Well…simple. Listen to the music! With a little bit of effort, you will quickly get into the groove of the music and start getting ‘in tune’ with it. Expect the lights to go brighter when the drum solo is approaching…for a shoot like this, it would be great if you already know the songs that are going to be played by the band on stage. One quickly realizes that it is very fulfilling to be able to shoot in rhythm to the music. You will probably walk away with the best pictures of the day, if you use these three simple tips to their best applicability.