A-Photo Mag

If you have been following our tutorials on panoramic photography, you were probably able to make near perfect panoramic images, with a little bit of luck. If your photographs didn’t seem to stitch together well, the most probable cause is that you had objects very close to you. Read on…

 

If you have been shooting panoramas hand-held, its about time you started using a tripod. And not just any tripod (although just any tripod is better than no tripod at all). Let us consider an ordinary tripod with a regular camera mounted on it. Try this test - compose your viewfinder image in such a manner so as to have a vertical line close to the camera (say 2 or 3 feet away) and another away from the camera (maybe 6 to 10 feet away). The closer vertical line could simply mean the edge of a near object such as a computer monitor or a fence (if outdoors). Similarly the further vertical line could be the edge of an object or a wall some distance away from your camera. Notice the distance between the two vertical lines in your view finder. Now, turn the tripod head towards the right or to the left while keeping your eyes on the distance between the two (vertical lines). Nine times out of ten, the gap will seemingly increase or decrease as you rotate the tripod head. This is simply thanks to the parallax error caused by the fact the camera does not have its tripod mount socket located at the optic center of the lens. In fact it is not possible to have the tripod mount at the optic center of the lens, since that point is somewhere inside the camera body! To avoid the parallax error, we need to make sure that the camera is mounted to the tripod in such a manner so as to rotate from its optic center when you turn the tripod head. That is the only way you can shoot perfect panoramas.

 

 

 

That is exactly where the panoramic tripod head can help, and it is specifically designed so as to allow you to shoot perfect panoramic images that can be stitched to each other without a problem. The panoramic head usually has a vertical arm and a horizontal arm that allow you to move the camera mount horizontally as well as vertically. To adjust the camera so as to allow it to rotate from the optic center of the lens, you need to mount the camera on the tripod indirectly using the panoramic head (the panoramic head fits on to your regular tripod head). Then you need to, as mentioned earlier, position your camera so you see one near and one far vertical line in the finder. Now, you experiment by moving the camera vertically and/or horizontally until it is positioned in such a manner so as to totally avoid the parallax error. By this we mean, there would be no change in the distance between the two vertical lines when you rotate the camera this way or that.

Ok - you’ve got your self a panoramic tripod head. You’ve aligned it to suit your camera-lens combination (it is a good idea to mark the position of the brackets so you do not have to go through the painful process of aligning your camera and lens every time you have to shoot a panorama). You’ve also found a great landscape or interior location to shoot your panorama. You mount your camera on the tripod using your panoramic tripod head. You shoot your 360 degree (or partial) panorama. Now comes the painful task of stitching together the images on  manual software, right? Wrong! There are dedicated software on the market for this very task. And what’s more, they also publish your images in variable formats. Once you have the shooting mastered, you need to invest into a good panoramic software. This technology was first introduced by Apple USA, on their VR WORX software that played panoramas on the Apple Quicktime player. Today there are a number of software available on the market to stitch and publish your work. We will not deal with any specific software here, but speak of the basic principles behind every one of them. Any panorama software involves the execution of three basic steps mentioned below.

 

The Shooting Stage

This involves positioning the camera and lens on a tripod with a panoramic head (as mentioned in earlier tutorials). Whatever the software you will be using to stitch together your images, it will never work (just as you will never be able to manually stitch the images either) unless the camera was positioned at the optic center of the lens while shooting. Different software will call for different shooting methods - some will ask for images of top, down, left, right, front and back, some will ask for panoramic images shot rotating the tripod head clockwise, etc. But remember, in every case the camera and lens first need to be mounted correctly on the tripod.

 

The Stitching Stage

Now ends the hard work and now begins the fun! When you have photographed the required images, you load them on to the panorama software and click away. Usually the stitching is completely automated while you sit back and relax.

 

The Publishing Stage

Next you will need to publish your panorama… you could choose to publish it as a jpg for print format. On the other hand you could choose to publish it on the web, so as to make an interactive panorama. Interactive panoramas invite a user to click and drag with the mouse so as to be able to ‘look’ this way or that, giving them the feeling of standing in a room or at a location and looking around. This has today become the norm to market real estate in most developed countries. To view the published Panoramas on a web page, the user usually needs a JAVA enabled computer or a FLASH player. But let us not get involved with the graphic design stage…

If you have read the introductory article on Panoramic photography you may wish to give a better, more professional looking finish to your panoramas than to simply stick the images on card. There is of course a digital way to do this. In fact there is more than one digital way. Let us look at the Photoshop way for a start. This is of course assuming that the reader already has a basic knowledge of this image editing software’s applications and controls and commands. If not, it would be pretty difficult to get into digital panoramic photography at all and we would suggest a few weeks oh Photoshop tutorials and practice first.If you have 3 images to be stitched, open them all in Photoshop. Any version of the software would work for this. Check out the size of your images. Make a horizontal box so 3 images would easily fit into it. If your images at 640 by 480 resolution for example, you would want a box of 640 height (at least) and around 1500 length roughly. We will make it the appropriate size later.

Drag and drop all three images into this horizontal box and select appropriate layers to adjust the layers 1,2 and 3 (or however you have chosen to name them) so that they align to make your panorama. More often than not, when you shoot hand held panoramas, your images would probably appear to fit in a zig zag manner, with some higher than the previous and some lower. Do not worry about this just yet. We shall get to shooting perfect panoramas in a later article. For the time being we shall simply crop away the ‘extra area’ using the crop tool on Photoshop, resulting in a neat Panorama’.

Do note that you may have to adjust the tonal values brightness and contrast on certain images for them to match seamlessly. This is more common when you have photographed using the auto mode of the camera, so try and shoot using a manual camera mode (where it is  possible) and set the same exposure for all images of the panorama. Anyway, we shall get back to perfect panoramas later, as mentioned earlier. Let us get the basics first.

So - now we have a 3 ’stitched’ images, with one or more probably out of horizontal level. So, use the crop tool to cut off the additional area and you will have something that looks much better.

Easy wasn’t that? Try and experiment with 4 or 5 or even more images that you stitch using photoshop. You will soon learn to get your images more or less aligned even with hand held photography. Once you have a couple of perfect horizontal panoramas, you could get them printed at a lab and cut away the white area to leave a panoramic print. The prints can then be mounted and framed to decorate your interiors. Remember, like everything else, practice makes perfect where panoramic stitching is concerned.

When you think of panoramic photography, the image of a horizontally long photograph comes to mind. Panorama is nothing new to the world of photography. Its been around for almost as long as the art of photography itself, but it is also true that this form of photography has evolved just like everything else. Let us get into the basics of panoramic photography.

 

Panorama was earlier done using an extra long bit of sheet film and a lens with more than average field of view. If you do not really know what that means, dont worry about it. Today you can make panoramic images with any film or digital camera, and digital does make things easier where image stitching is concerned. On that note, let us learn a little about image stitching which is the basis of panoramic photography. Try this for a start - place your camera on a tripod and shoot your first photograph as you normally would. Then, rotate the tripod head to the right and frame your second shot making sure that the two photographs overlap each other to about 25% at least. You could shoot a third and a fourth image as well. The resulting images would look something like this…

 

 

It is easy to see now, that the 3 images can simply be combined to make one panoramic imahe. But how do you actually ’stitch’ the images together? We shall get to the stitching options later. For this introductory exercise, let us simply make 3 prints and paste them on a hardboard or something similar, so it is understood what is required. Do not be put off if your first attempt does not immediately provide good results. One thing you need to keep in mind is to make sure your tripod head is aligned well. For this purpose, a tripos head with a spirit level would work well. It is possible to shoot a series of overlapping images hand held, with care - but it would never be perfect shooting this way. In any case, if you stitch your 3 or 4 images together by sticking them side by side so that the overlapping areas create a panoramic effect, you would have something like this as a result -

 

 Do note that the images have been photographed vertically so that one has the maximum vertical field of view or coverage. We have the luxury to shoot as many images as needed to cover the horizontal axis, so let us always remember that the vertical axis is not being stitched, and so we shoot with the camera held (or mounted to the tripod) vertically. Go ahead and experiment with image stitching to get the feel of panoramic photography. Every photographer remembers the excitement on creating his or her first pano stitch. The images above have been photographed hand held. One can see where the stitch is not perfect, but this is probably what your first few stitches would turn out as. Try sticking your images on a black card to create exciting panoramic cityscapes and landscapes.

For ages, images have been painted on different types of canvasses and then one fine day photography came into being and the images were projected on to surfaces so that memories could come to life. According to certain researches mentioned in the Hockney-Falco thesis, some of the artists have used the camera lucida and camera obscura for tracing scenes way back in the 16th century. Although, it is being disputed by artists today, history maintains the use of the first camera in the 16th century only.

The early camera had no mechanism for fixing an image. It was able to project images through the opening in the walls of a dark room on to the surface. This way the entire room turned into a large pinhole camera. Actually the term camera obscura means dark room. Using of the camera obscura was a critical element in the evolution of modern day photography.

The first ever photograph of a person was taken by Louis Daguerre in early 1839 and was called “Boulevard du Temple”. Louis Daguerre also worked in partnership with Niépce to refine the then existing silver process. Finally in 1833 Niépce passed away but he left his notes for Daguerre to follow upon. Although Daguerre had no scientific background he still made an important contribution to photography. He discovered that when he exposed silver to iodine vapor before exposing it to light, and followed by exposing silver to mercury fumes, he was able to develop a latent image.

Louis Daguerre finally announced on January 7, 1839 the fact that he had invented a process that used silver on a copper plate and he aptly named it daguerreotype. A process quite similar to the daguerreotype is being used even today for Polaroid photos.

Another man Talbot read about Daguerre’s invention and worked towards perfecting his own process of photography. This was another important event in the process of evolution of photography. Talbot partnered with John Herschel, an astronomer, who provided him with an effective fixer. John Hershel is associated for the development of the very first glass negative.

Around 1840, Talbot invented a photographic process called the calotype process. He used to coat sheets of paper with silver chloride so that it could create an intermediate negative image. The remarkable thing of the Calotype process was that it could reproduce positive prints unlike the daguerreotype. Soon after, Slovene Janez Puhar invented a technical process for making photographs on glass.

Eleven years later, Frederick Scott Archer invented the collodion process. His invention was recognized by the Académie Nationale Agricole, Manufacturière et Commerciale on July 17, 1852 in Paris. This was probably the beginning of a new era of modern photography. But it took almost 20 years of improvements and in 1884 George Eastman, developed a dry gel that could be used on paper or on film, and this replaced the use of the photographic plate.

Four years later in July 1888, Eastman came out with his first camera called the Kodak camera (and it is a brand today). It was introduced commercially with an eye catching advertising slogan that said, “You press the button, we do the rest”.

We have come a long way since Eastman introduced the Kodak. Today there are several camera manufacturers, film manufactures, printers etc in the market. Some of the big names apart from Kodak include Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Minolta, Fuji, Sony, Panasonic etc.

Pentax corporation once more proved itself to be a distinguished photo equipment producer. Pentax has announced about a new DSLR camera Pentax K20D.

The new camera is not just an upgrade of the previous model K10D. K20D has included in itself the newest technologies.
Specially for this camera a 14,6 mega pixel matrix was developed with a size of 23,4×15,5 mm. The main advantage of such matrix is a much better ability to perceive diagonal light rays. It will allow getting better results when shooting with a wide-angle lens and also when using film camera lens that are so popular about Pentax.

New camera is equipped with a Pentax SR (Shake Reduction) system that in many cases will spare photographer from using a tripod or flash. The most valuable thing is that the built-in stabilization system works with all types of Pentax lenses and with all types of threaded lenses attached through lens adapter.

The absolute novelty of Pentax is the Dynamic Range Enlargement technology is used in K20D. It optimizes the dynamical range that allows achieving details clearness in light and shady areas of the picture. The brightness range has grown one EV-level up in the new camera. This will sometimes free a photographer from making doubles in the search of best exposure compromise.

Most photographers really appreciate a possibility of shooting without paying too much attention to the camera. They would be excited to know that Pentax equipped K20D with a LCD screen with the Live View feature. Now you can frame the picture using not only pentaprism viewfinder.

All these features and newest technologies are “packed” into the famous Pentax dust and moisture protected box. Pentax K20D is a camera that will help a photographer to get a high quality picture with a possibility to add some effects in a rather unhurried mode of shooting. Although the speed of Pentax K20D – 3 frames per second – is quite enough for most of professional reporter needs too.

  

The Year 2007 was very successful for such photo equipment giants as Nikon, Canon and Pentax. Their new digital cameras made many professionals to sell their old distinguished cameras to second-hand market. But not many people noticed new small Olympuses. And really unjustly. Mature professionals remember these compact film SLRs and rate them high for a lens quality, small weight and usability. Today to take their place came a line of DSLRs that will definitely add much fame to this brand. The newest Olympus camera is Olympus E-510. Here is its visit card: sensor format – 17.3X13mm (noticeably smaller than all the 10 Mega pixel rivals, this camera although doesn’t really loose in quality of pictures but allow to lower the lens weight significantly). The Live View mode allows framing a picture using digital screen that is new for the leaders of the market and makes such cameras much more expensive. The stabilization system of Olympus E-510 lets you shoot from hands on exposures that are 3-4 steps more continuous than regular. The ultrasound wave filter that protects your camera from dust is built in. Camera is also equipped with a new graphical processor. Shoot speed – 3 frames per second.  

The camera will really suite both a professional and an amateur photographer. And even more likely an amateur because of its price. Olympus E-510 with two very good lenses will cost you not more than a thousand dollar. 

“And what about the lens?” - you will probably ask. People who once used the lens of the Zuiko trade mark will probably say: perfect lenses! We’ve got a zoom lens 14-42 mm – light, compact, comply with 28-84 mm film one (for a remark – the crop factor of Olympuses equals 2). The second one is a zoom Zuiko 40-150 mm complies with 80-300 mm film zoom lens. For most types of shooting these are more than enough.  Although the Olympus engineers thought different and have developed lenses of the “TOP PRO” class. Its price is not low but the quality is corresponding… On the point of view of the author the Olympus professional zoom lenses gathered in itself the sharpness of Zeiss lenses with the flexibility of the Pentax lenses. Anyway to try once is better than to read 100 times.

A Black & white photo has always been mesmerizing and can add different angles and several emotions to the same photograph. There are basically 4 key ingredients of Black & white photography that will help you to visualize whether a scene will work as a black and white image or not. The ingredients include: 

Looking for Contrast: This is one of the key elements of black & white photography. Contrast can provide a black and white shot with more depth in it. Since you will be unable to use any color for distinguishing the different elements in the image, contrast makes up for this absence by providing tonal variances. Of course this doesn’t necessarily mean that you will need to look for stark contrasts for all your shots. Use contrast only with respect to the subject whose image you have to take. every shot you want to convert to black and white - the subject matter will come into play here - but you should ponder how the contrast will come into play when composing your shot. It is an important element of composition. 

Waiting for the Right type of lighting: Where contrast creates a stark effect, use of proper lighting can soften your black & white images. Hence the type of lighting used by you is a determining factor in most black and white photography. Let us take an example: h3 is known as direct lighting and it is used in black & white photography to add to the contrast. On the other hand, if you use side lighting then it will reveal all the textures associated with your subject. It is mostly used in portraits as it can accentuate different features. Lighting also helps in adding shadows, which is another important element of black & white photography.

 

Shapes or Patterns: Shapes of patterns sometimes go unseen in color photography because the color draws the maximum attention. In black & white photography, it is exactly the opposite because it can make patterns and shapes come to life.

 

Texture capture: Capturing the texture of the subject is important for black & white photography because this can add more weight to the image and create a strong composition. Some or most subjects have outlines that reveal the texture and it can be captured better with black & white photography as opposed to color. This will add a new dimension to the subject as well as the final composition.

Some of the Top 5 Black & White films are:

1.      Ilford HP 5+ (none)  400

2.      Kodak T400CN CN 400

3.      Kodak T-MAX 400 TMY 400

4.      Kodak Tri-X TX 400

5.      Kodak T-Max 3200 TMZ 3200

Black & white photography has no limitations as far as photographical nuances are concerned or the subject in consideration. You can shoot just about anything from landscapes to people and places. Landscapes is by far one of the most popular shots employed in black & white photography although it requires more hard work than in color because the final composition should neither have too much of contrast, nor too light and should have a visible depth and shadows. Hence it is always advised to look for active skies that have vivid and expansive cloud formations so that you can make the maximum of the landscape by using a black & white film.

Black & white photography will probably never fade because it is the very epitome of color photography. 

>>BestSelling Cameras<<

The photographers using the digital equipment sometimes get really disappointed when in some very hot moment they get the “Memory Card Full” message on their LCD display.

Such a situation is almost impossible if you become an owner of the new professional digital camera - NIKON D3. For the first time, leaving behind the rivals, Nikon offered to its admirers a new camera (full-format) that is equipped with 2 slots for Compact Flash memory cards. For press photographers and those who take many photos in a very high pace this option is a must.

 

And now, here is some information about technical parameters of the new camera. D3 is equipped with full format (36 x 23.9 mm) 12.1 mega pixel CMOS matrix. The speed range is from 200 to 6400 ISO. The speed of shooting is also very high – 9 shots per second and camera can even perform faster, shooting 11 shots per second when working in DX (24 x 16 mm) format.

The camera start up time is also very low. It takes D3 only 12/100 of a second. This option is much faster than in its predecessor D2Xs for 8/100 of a second. Also camera is equipped with a HDMI interface, high quality 3-inch LCD monitor that allows using a Live View mode.

NIKON D3 is produced inside of a strong body made from magnesium alloy and has a very good protection from dust and moisture. In other words the camera is a very reliable and fast photo device that is created for a demanding and straight-out professional. With appearing on the market of a full-format DSLR the professionals received an alternative to the full matrix Canon 5D camera. The Nikon D3 is a modern and very fast camera but of course at a higher price. The comfort and speed always cost money, doesn’t it!?

Since the launch of digital camera, enjoying photography has become a common hobby. Digital cameras are easy to use and affordable. Amateurs have started to use digital cameras more often while professionals use the DSLR or digital SLR.Cameras as we all know, is used for recording images. Point-and-shoot cameras record still images, video cameras are used for recording movements as the name suggest while digital cameras can record both still images and moving pictures. They have become popular because you can capture various emotions, colors, motions and much more.The most commonly used still camera is the 35 mm and it gets its name from the 35 mm film that is used. A basic camera digital or point-and-shoot consists of primarily six basic components. The components are: •

• Viewfinder 

The viewfinder enables a photographer to see the subject. There are basically two types of camera viewfinders. The first type will allow you to look through the lens of the camera while the other will enable you to view at a plane parallel to the camera lens. Viewfinders are there in all single lens reflex (SLR) cameras, point-and-shoot cameras and a few digital cameras.  

 

• Focusing mechanism

SLR and DSLR cameras have another mechanism called the focusing mechanism, which is normally not there in Point-and-shoot cameras. Normally you can focus well using the viewfinder itself but SLR has focusing meters. The second option is to pick up a camera with a removable prism. Professionals also use the Hartmann Mask for focusing purposes. Hartmann Mask was initially devised and used for telescopes. Most cameras these days have auto focus mechanisms that have made focusing much easier.

 

• Shutter

The camera shutter is a device that enables light to enter through the lens for a small period of time to enhance the exposing of photographic film. There are two positions for fitting camera shutters: The different types of shutters used in modern day cameras include leaf shutters, diaphragm shutters, focal plane shutter, projector shutter and central shutters.

 

 

 

• Lens

This is considered to be the most important part of the camera. It is a far more important than the glossy dials and other advanced features that are a part and parcel of modern day digital cameras. A basic camera lens comprises of multiple elements that will help you to add a creative element to your photography. The multiple elements in a camera lens help in directing light to the camera sensors so that it can get a high clarity of the object being shot. The main aim of the lens and its multiple elements is to reduce any kind of aberrations. One of the frequently faced problems is that of chromatic aberration, which can lead to blurring and difficulty in color alignment. This problem arises when the lens is of poor quality.The second most important aspect of a lens is the focal length. The focal length helps in determining the magnification of a subject. It plays an important role in SLR or DSLR cameras. If you buy a wide angle lens then the focal length will be smaller and for a tele-zoom lens, the focal length will be larger. Apart from this, focal length of a camera lens will also determine the depth and the perspective of any image. Here are the different types of focal lengths commonly used in SLR cameras:

Focal Length between 21-35mm: Wide Angle lens: This is used for landscape photography

Focal Length between 35-70mm: Normal lens. It is used for standard/hobby photography

Focal Length between 70-135mm: Medium Telephoto: This is mostly used for Portraiture

Focal Length between 135-300+ mm: Tele Zoom. This is used for wildlife, nature, birds and sports photography

 

• Body

The body of the camera helps in limiting the amount of light that exposes the sensitive film.

 

 

 

 

 

• Films

 

 

 

 

Films are used mostly in SLR and point and shoot cameras. There are different types of films available in color or black & white. Color films include slow films (25-64 ISO), medium films (100-200 ISO), fast films (400-1000 ISO) and ultrafast films (1600-3200 ISO).

There are many other independent and well as in-built parts, which play an important role in the final composition but are considered as secondary factors.