Holding The Camera

A digital camera if not held properly, there is no amount of software trickery can 

rescue a bad picture. Usually people can make silly mistake like draping a stray
finger over the lens and also creating camera shake because of bad posture.
When using a Dslr camera, a photographer usually make a good grip with their
right hand on the camera and make sure their pointer finger can move freely
where the other fingers getting a good grip on the camera. The other hand
holding the base of the camera on the lens where the thumb finger on the left
of the lens. Draw both elbows toward the body and shoot. By doing a proper
holding of the camera doesn't make it a good posture. Remember to stand
properly with the two legs having a good stand like a tripod base.

Using a Tripod
Tripod is one of the useful tools that used by most photographers. It comes with
many different sizes and weight. Now a day, there many tripod has been design
for certain type of shot. Most common one is the pan and tilt head but most landscapephotographer prefer using the ball head tripod because of easy
fix of its tilt. But ball head tripod are not suitable for holding zoom lenses. For zoom lenses that normally used for sportphotography and also wildlife
photographer is the Wimberley head. By using a tripod, it can keep the camera steady under slow shutter speed. A tripod prevent blurred and out of focus result.

Tips for how to best hold and protect your camera as you go out into the world shooting.

 

Proper hand positions for basic camera handling.

Protect Your Equipment

These are suggestions to help to protect the camera:

• Camera bodies are convenient pieces of technology to capture and hold images.  But always remember, “The glass is the thing!”  Light must pass through the glass, and as we are ultimately capturing light, maintaining the quality of this glass is paramount.  This is where a high-quality piece of glass like a Leica, Hasselblad, Canon, or Nikon, makes all the difference. Lens caps, filters and lens shades are the first line of defense against damage to lenses. The extremely low cost ($10+/-) of lens caps are well worth the protection they offer.  They can save a lens from an unwanted bang into a tree or telephone pole; or they can just be to keep out water, sand, and dust.  Look for a complete article on these useful items shortly.

• Here is correct hand position for an overhead or reach shot. Note that the strap is wrapped around the wrist.

  How can you help protect the camera body as well?  First off, always use a strap of some kind; this can be around the neck, a wrist strap or a diagonal sling shoulder strap.  When you hand the camera over to someone else, always make it obvious you expect them to use it as well, by placing it around their neck.  When you are attempting to make a stretch shot, say reaching overhead for an overview, use the strap either wrapped around your wrist or held by your other hand.

• When in a crowd, or even a jungle for that matter, how else can you protect your camera?   When carrying the camera, place the strap diagonally across one shoulder.  Let the camera hang onto your opposite hip, but use one of your arms - in a natural position hanging down your side - to cover, shield and protect the camera from bumping into things.  This is also a natural position for the camera to be worn under a jacket in wet or windy weather.  It is rather easy to swing it up for a quick shot, and not unreasonable to get out for a prolonged action

The two handed hold is the most secure way to handle your camera.

Better Shooting

 The camera must be held close to the face and body in order to reduce vibration. a better way to induce camera movement than by holding the arms out.  Always use your eyepiece.  And when buying a new camera, find one with an eyepiece.

Especially for 35mm style DSLRs, place the left hand flat under the body of the camera to provide a supporting structure.  The fingers of this hand are also used for focusing, movement of a zoom barrel, etc.  Do not focus or zoom with your hand above the lens; keep it below for stability. Bring the camera close to your face, and your arms/elbows should tuck into your chest, forming a sort of tripod for additional stability.  Whenever possible, use a tree, pole, wall or other solid object to lean against for additional support.  This is especially necessary when shooting  long exposures - say 1/30^th of a second or more - as well as for long lenses - say 85mm or more.  Finally, the right hand should firmly grip the camera on the right side.  The thumb is behind the camera, usable for camera adjustments.  The three smallest fingers are in front of the camera body and the index finger, on top, is prepared to release the shutter, adjust settings, press down the depth of field, preview button, etc.

InTro Composition :)

There are 9 types :
a) rule of third
b) framing
c) leading lines
d) pattern
e) triangle
f)  lines
g) object
h) subject
i) object isolation

a) Rule Of Third.

 There have 9 parts. The basic principle the rule of third is to imagine down into thirds (horizontally and vertically). For example :

 Before you snap the picture, just imagine your picture area divided into thirds both horizontally and vertically. The intersections of these imaginary lines suggest 4 options for placing the center of interest for good composition. The options you select depends upon the subject and how you would like that subject to be presented. For example :

 In learning how to use the rule of thirds, the most important questions to be asking of yourself are :

i) what are the points of interest in this shot?

ii) where am I intentionally placing them?

b) Framing

 People starting out in photography do not tend to think too much about framing. Most people tend to put their subject in the center of the frame-often because that is where they have their auto focus point. The first and most important thing to understand about framing is that the center of your frame is generally the weakest point to put your subject.

c) Leading Lines.

 Leading lines are used to draw the viewer's eye through a photography. They are intentional or unintentional, natural lines created in the space of the photography and are used to create a visual narrative in the composition. Leading lines are also used to draw your eye to a focal point in the shot that you would like to highlight. Leading lines is using line to draw someones eyes to the subject.

d) Pattern

 we are surrounded by symmetry and patterns. They can make for very eye-catching compositions, particularly in situations where they are not expected. The key to emphasizing patterns is to isolate them from their surroundings. Patterns appear whenever strong graphic elements such as lines, colors, shapes or forms. Once you do become aware of the power of patterns, you will discover them almost everywhere. The secret to finding patterns is to explore potential subjects from a variety of angles. There are patterns all around us if we only learn to see them. Emphasizing and highlighting these patterns can lead to striking shots.

e) Triangles.

  Triangles are a great way of combining different compositional techniques such as lines and paths and using them to create a more interesting part of a photograph, but the best part about using a triangle is their ability to make a photo feel stable or unstable. Triangles are a great way of grouping together 3 points of a photograph and organizing them so they portray a certain feeling such as stability, aggression,and instability. So long as you have 3 points of vague interest in a photo that are not on the same line, then you can easily create a triangle. It is not about having 3 clear lines that join up in a photo, it is about grouping points of interest. If you take a look back through some of your photos, you will probably realize that a lot of the photos you have taken contain triangles, but whether you have used them to their maximum potential is another thing.

f)Lines

Lines also play an important role in composition. This sculpture has some beautiful lines, but they're obscured by the busy background. There have two types of lines which is horizontal and vertical.

references:

http://photoinf.com/General/KODAK/guidelines_for_better_photographic_composition_lines.html 

http://photoinf.com/General/KODAK/guidelines_for_better_photographic_composition_rule_of_thirds.html 

EXPOSURE TOOLS

There are four types of EXPOSURE TOOLS :
1) ISO
2) SHUTTER SPEED
3) APERTURE
4) METERING


1) ISO ( what is ISO
    In tradition photography ISO was the indication of how sensitive a film was to light. It was measured in numbers.The minimum of ISO speed is 100 and the maximum is 64 000. The lower the number the less sensitive your camera is to light and the finer the grain. Higher ISO settings generally used in darker situations to get faster shutter speeds.100 ISO is generally accepted as 'normal'. Most people tend to keep their cameras in 'auto mode' where the camera selects the appropriate ISO setting depending upon the conditions you are shooting in but most cameras also give you the opportunity to select your own ISO also.


About Auto ISO.


    This mode sets the ISO speed automatically between ISO 100-800 to suit the shooting mode and ambient light level. For flash and <M> (manual) exposures, ISO 400 is set. When you press the shutter button halfway, the automatically-set ISO speed is displayed in the viewfinder and on the LCD monitor 


ISO Speed Guide ( canon 1000D)


1) 100/200 - sunny outdoors
2) 400/800 - overcast skies, evening
3) 1600 - night or dark indoors








   A lower ISO setting is used when capturing overly bright sense, since it reduces the light sensitivity of image sensor. This is ideal when shooting at the beach, on a ski slope, or under the midday sun. A higher ISO settings is often used when shooting under dimmer conditions ( cloudy days, indoors ) since it increase the light sensitivity of the image sensor.

2) SHUTTER SPEED


    Shutter speed is the amount of time that the shutter is open. In film photography it was the length of time that the film was exposed to the scene you are photographing and similarly  in digital photography shutter speed is the length of time that your image sensor 'sees' the scene you are attempting to capture. Shutter speed is measured in seconds. The bigger the denominator the faster the speed. 1/1000 is much faster than 1/30.

                                                                       fast shutter

                                                                     medium shutter

                                                                   slow shutter

             If using a slow shutter speed (lower than 1/60) you will need to either use a tripod. When considering what shutter speed to use in an image you should ask yourself whether anything in your scene is moving and how you would like to capture that movement. If there is movement in your scene you have the choice of either freezing the movement or letting the moving object intentionally blur.


            To freeze movement in an image you must choose a faster shutter speed, and to blur movement in an image you must choose a slower shutter speed. When taking a photo of a waterfall and want to show how fast the water is flowing, taking a shot of a racing car and want to give it a feeling of speed, in all of these instances choosing a longer shutter speed will be the way to go. However in all of these cases you need to use a tripod. Another thing to consider when choosing shutter speed is the focal length of the lens you are using. For examples, if you have a lens that is 50mm 1/60 is probably okay but if you have a 200mm lens, you will probably want to shoot at around 1/250.


3)APERTURE

      Aperture is the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken. The aperture that you set impacts the size of that hole. The larger the hole the more light gets in and the smaller the hole the less light. Aperture is measured in 'f-stops'. For examples f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/22.

               DEPTH OF FIELD (DOF) is the amount of your shot that will be in focus. Large depth of field means that most of your image will be in focus whether it is close to your camera or far away. Aperture has a big impact upon DOF. Large aperture ( it is a smaller number) will decrease DOF while small aperture ( large number ) will give you larger DOF. Small number mean small DOF and large number mean large DOF.

  

  

    4) METERING
  
      Metering mode also known as 'Camera Metering', 'Exposure Metering'. It is very important to know how metering works and what each of the metering mode does is important in photography, because it helps photographers control their exposure with minimum effort and take better pictures in unusual lighting situations.


                      What is Metering? Metering is how your camera determines what the correct shutter speed and aperture should be, depending on the amount of light that goes into camera and the sensitivity of the sensor. Nowadays, every DSLR has an integrated light meter that automatically measures that reflected light and determines the optimal exposure. The most common metering modes in digital cameras today are :


      a) Matrix Metering (Nikon), also known as Evaluate Metering (Canon)
      b) Center-weighted Metering
      c) Spot Metering (Nikon), also known as Partial Metering (Canon)

                  

                    In addition, you can see the camera meter in action when you shoot in Manual Mode, which you look inside the viewfinder and you will see bars going left or right, with a zero in the middle, as illustrated below.

    

                   If you at a very bright area, the bars will go to '+' side while if you at a very dark area, the bars will go to the '-' side. Beside that, you would need to increase or decrease your shutter speed to get to 'o', which is the optimal exposure, according to your camera meter.

      a) Matrix Meeting.

  Matrix meeting is the default metering mode on most DSLR. It works similarly to the above example by dividing the entire frame into multiple 'zones', which are then all analyzed on individual basis for light and dark tones. One of the key factors that affects matrix metering, is where the camera focus point is set to. After reading information from all individuals zones, the metering system look at where you focused within the frame and marks it more important than all other zones. 

b) Center-Weighted Metering

Evaluate the light in the middle of the frame and its surroundings and ignores the corners. Center-weighted metering does not look at the focus point you select and only evaluates the middle area of the image.

Use this mode when you want the camera to prioritize the middle of the frame, which works great for close-up portraits and relatively large subjects that are in the middle of the frame. For example, if you were taking a headshot of a person with the sun behind him/her, then this mode would expose the face of the person correctly, even though everything else would probably get heavily overexposed.

c) Spot Metering

Only evaluates the light around your focus point and ignores everything else. It evaluates a single zone/cell and calculate exposure based on that single area, nothing else. When your subjects do not take much of the space, using Matrix or Center weighted metering modes would most likely result in a silhouette, if the subject was back-lit. Spot metering works great for back-lit subjects like that.

For examples using spot metering when photographing in the moon. Because the moon would take up small portion of the frame and the sky is completely dark around it, it is best to use spot metering.

        p/s:   If you want to change shutter speed, you will need to change one or both of the other elements. (ISO or Aperture). For examples if you speed up your shutter speed one stop (from 1/125 to 1/250) you are effectively letting half as much light into your camera. To compensate for this you will probably need to increase your aperture one stop (for example from f16 to f11). The other alternatives would be to choose a faster ISO rating (for example ISO 100 to ISO 400).

     

- 

 -   References :
       http://www.digital-photography-school.com/aperture
     http://www.digital-photography-school.com/shutter-speed
     http://www.digital-photography-school.com/iso-settings
     http://mansurovs.com/understanding-metering-modes

TYPE OF THE CAMERA

SLR camera




For outdoor photography, and especially for weather photography, the common SLR type of camera is best suited. SLR stands for single-lens reflex, where both the composition and metering as well as the actual film exposure are being done through a single lens. When the shutter of the camera is closed, the mirror is in the path of the lens, reflecting the light upward and focusing it onto a matted glass, where you look at through the viewfinder. When you take a picture, the mirror flips upward, the shutter opens and the film is being exposed, and after the shutter closes again the mirror falls back down.



Point & shoot compact cameras
The small compact cameras are not useful, except if you only take pictures of the most common weather phenomena like clouds, sunrise/sunset and so on. There are many more exotic weather phenomena which you can't photograph using a compact camera. Such a small camera is only useful to have with you all the time when you are not photographing with your SLR equipment, in case you see a rare or beautiful weather phenomenon (especially halos, rainbows, clouds, sunset).
Do not use an APS camera but a 35mm camera; APS film is too small for large prints to be made; this film is more suitable for photos you take during holidays and the like.
A few things to take into account when you buy a compact camera for always at hand: a flash is completely useless for weather photography; if you buy a camera with zoomlens, it is only practical to cover the range 28mm - 80mm or so; try to locate a camera with b B shutter option choose a compact camera which you can mount on a tripod. Those options do not make the camera much more expensive and can be of great help.





Medium-format cameras
Film frame size comes in a variety of ranges, the most widely used being the 35mm format. However, especially for high-resolution photography (e.g. lightning!) you might wish to expand your camera collection with a medium-format camera. Medium-format are sizes like (in millimeter) 60x60, 60x90 and 60x40. For comparison, the 35-mm format measures 24x36 mm. The medium-format makes for much sharper photos, but is also more expensive; the cost scales approximately by surface area of film.
There are many types of medium-format cameras, but most are considered professional and have professional price tags. For starters, a good model would be a Mamiya or older Rollei dual-lens camera. A more modular camera system is the Hasselblad system, but this is outside the ballpark of a starter's budget. Rollei cameras are older, and available cheaply at occasion photo stores; they have the disadvantage of a fixed-focal length lens and hence are not very modular. Mamiya is newer, more modular, but also a lot more expensive already.

Large-format cameras
The large-format sizes range from 4x5 inches up to 8x10 inches (this is slide/print film size, not even a printed photo yet). This is not really useful for weather photography - you would need a lot of time to get such equipment set up, composing the frame, and light metering. It is more useful for landscape photography, where the subject is fixed and you have time to get set up. Film at these sizes is very expensive so you want to be sure that your photo will be successful.




35mm Single Lens Reflex
A single-lens reflex(SLR) camera is a camera that typically uses a mirror and prism system that permits the photografer to view through the lens and hence see exactly what will be captured, as opposed to viewfinder cameras where the image could be significantly different from what will captured.











35mm Range Finder
a rangefinder camera is a camera fitted with a rangefinder:arange finding focusing mechanism allowing the photografer to measure the subject distance and take photographs that are in sharp focus.Most varities of rangefinder show two images of the same subject,one of the which moves when a calibrated wheel turned;Older,non-coupled range finder cameras display the focusing distance and require the photographer to transfer the value to the lens focus ring;cameras built in rangefinders could have an external rangefinder windows.later the range finder was incorporated into the viewfinder.More modern designs havve rangefinder coupled to the focusing mechanism so that the lens is focused correctlyy when the rangefinder image fuse compare with the focus screen non-autofocus SLRs







Advance Photo System
Advanced Photo System(APS) is a film format for still photography first produced in 1996. It was marketed by Eastman Kodak under the brand name Advantix, by FujiFilm under the name Nexia, by AgfaPhoto under the name Futura and by Konica as Centuria.
The film is 24mm wide, and has three image formats:
- H for "High Definition"(30.2 x 16.7 mm;aspect ratio 16:9; 4x7" print)
-C for "Classic"(25.1 x 16.7 mm; aspect ratio 3:2; 4x6" print)
-P for "Panoramic" (30.2 x 9.5 mm;aspect ratio 3:1; 4x11" print)


The "C" and "P" formats are formed by cropping. The full image is recorded on the film, and an image recorded in one aspect ratio can be reprinted in another. The "C" format has an equivalent aspect ratio to a 135 film image.

Twin Lens Reflex
A Twin-lens reflex camera(TLR) is a type of camera with two objective lenses of the same focal length. One of the lenses is the photographic objective or "taking lens" (the lens that takes the picture), while the other is used for the viewfinder system, which is usually viewed from above at waist level. In addition to the objective, the viewfinder consist of a 45-degree mirror, a matte focusing screen at the top of the camera, and a pop-up hood surrounding it.
The two objectives are connected, so that the focus shown on the focusing screen will be exactly the same as on the film. However, many inexpensive TLR's are fixed-focus models. Most TLRs are use leaf shutters with shutter speeds up to 1/500th sec with B setting.
For practical purposes, all TLRs are film cameras, mist often using 120 film, although there are many examples which used other formats.

Digital Camera


A digital Camera or digicam is a camera that takes video or still photograph, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main devices used in the filed of digital photography. Most 21st century cameras are digital.
The optical system works the same as in film cameras, typically using a lens with a variable diaphragm to focus light onto an image pickup device. The diaphgragm and shutter admit the correct amount of light to the imager, just as with film but the image pickup device is eletronic rather than chemical.
Most digicam, aprt from camera phones and a few specialized types, have a standard tripod screw. Digital cameras can do things film cameras cannot:
-Display images on a small screen immediately after the record
-storing thousand of images on a single small memory devices
-deleting images to free storage space
Digital cameras are incorporated into many devices ranging from PDAs and mobile phones to vehicles. 

References

www.kodak.com/cluster/global/en/.../aboutSystem.shtml


www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/rangefinder.shtml


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-lens_reflex_camera